Miniaturization
{{short description|Trend to manufacture ever smaller products and devices}}
{{about|the common change in machinery|the science fiction element|Size change in fiction}}
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Miniaturization (Br.Eng.: miniaturisation) is the trend to manufacture ever-smaller mechanical, optical, and electronic products and devices. Examples include miniaturization of mobile phones, computers and vehicle engine downsizing. In electronics, the exponential scaling and miniaturization of silicon MOSFETs (MOS transistors){{cite web |title=Tortoise of Transistors Wins the Race - CHM Revolution |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/digital-logic/12/279 |website=Computer History Museum |access-date=22 July 2019}}{{cite book |last1=Colinge |first1=Jean-Pierre |last2=Colinge |first2=C. A. |title=Physics of Semiconductor Devices |date=2005 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=9780387285238 |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-o5bAG5pR3AC&pg=PA165}} leads to the number of transistors on an integrated circuit chip doubling every two years,{{cite book |last1=Siozios |first1=Kostas |last2=Anagnostos |first2=Dimitrios |last3=Soudris |first3=Dimitrios |last4=Kosmatopoulos |first4=Elias |title=IoT for Smart Grids: Design Challenges and Paradigms |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783030036409 |page=167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5l7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167}} an observation known as Moore's law. This leads to MOS integrated circuits such as microprocessors and memory chips being built with increasing transistor density, faster performance, and lower power consumption, enabling the miniaturization of electronic devices.{{cite book |last1=Sridharan |first1=K. |last2=Pudi |first2=Vikramkumar |title=Design of Arithmetic Circuits in Quantum Dot Cellular Automata Nanotechnology |date=2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319166889 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lJ-1BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1}}
Electronic circuits
{{Further|List of semiconductor scale examples|Moore's law|Semiconductor device fabrication|Transistor count}}
The history of miniaturization is associated with the history of information technology based on the succession of switching devices, each smaller, faster, and cheaper than its predecessor.{{Cite book|title=Nanostructuring Operations in Nanoscale Science and Engineering|url=https://archive.org/details/nanostructuringo00shar|url-access=limited|last=Sharma|first=Karl|publisher=McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.|year=2010|isbn=9780071626095|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nanostructuringo00shar/page/n28 16]}} During the period referred to as the Second Industrial Revolution ({{circa|1870–1914}}), miniaturization was confined to two-dimensional electronic circuits used for the manipulation of information.{{Cite book|title=Introduction to Micromechanisms and Microactuators|last1=Ghosh|first1=Amitabha|last2=Corves|first2=Burkhard|publisher=Springer|year=2015| isbn=9788132221432|location=Heidelberg|pages=32}} This orientation is demonstrated in the use of vacuum tubes in the first general-purpose computers. The technology gave way to the development of transistors in the 1950s and then the integrated circuit (IC) approach which followed.
File:Het kleinste TV-apparaat ter wereld, Bestanddeelnr 914-9265 (cropped).jpg
The MOSFET was invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960.{{Cite journal |last1=Huff |first1=Howard |last2=Riordan |first2=Michael |date=2007-09-01 |title=Frosch and Derick: Fifty Years Later (Foreword) |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.F02073IF |journal=The Electrochemical Society Interface |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=29 |doi=10.1149/2.F02073IF |issn=1064-8208|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Frosch |first1=C. J. |last2=Derick |first2=L |date=1957 |title=Surface Protection and Selective Masking during Diffusion in Silicon |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1.2428650 |journal=Journal of the Electrochemical Society |language=en |volume=104 |issue=9 |pages=547 |doi=10.1149/1.2428650|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=KAHNG |first=D. |date=1961 |title=Silicon-Silicon Dioxide Surface Device |url=https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814503464_0076 |journal=Technical Memorandum of Bell Laboratories|pages=583–596 |doi=10.1142/9789814503464_0076 |isbn=978-981-02-0209-5 |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite book |last=Lojek |first=Bo |title=History of Semiconductor Engineering |date=2007 |publisher=Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg |isbn=978-3-540-34258-8 |location=Berlin, Heidelberg |page=321}}{{Cite journal |last1=Ligenza |first1=J.R. |last2=Spitzer |first2=W.G. |date=1960 |title=The mechanisms for silicon oxidation in steam and oxygen |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0022369760902195 |journal=Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids |language=en |volume=14 |pages=131–136 |doi=10.1016/0022-3697(60)90219-5|bibcode=1960JPCS...14..131L |url-access=subscription }}{{cite book |last1=Lojek |first1=Bo |title=History of Semiconductor Engineering |date=2007 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=9783540342588 |page=120}} It was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturized and mass-produced for a wide range of uses,{{cite book |last1=Moskowitz |first1=Sanford L. |title=Advanced Materials Innovation: Managing Global Technology in the 21st century |date=2016 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9780470508923 |pages=165–167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2STRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA165}} due to its high scalability{{cite journal |last1=Motoyoshi |first1=M. |title=Through-Silicon Via (TSV) |journal=Proceedings of the IEEE |date=2009 |volume=97 |issue=1 |pages=43–48 |doi=10.1109/JPROC.2008.2007462 |s2cid=29105721 |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8a44/93b535463daa7d7317b08d8900a33b8cbaf4.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719120523/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8a44/93b535463daa7d7317b08d8900a33b8cbaf4.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-07-19 |issn=0018-9219}} and low power consumption, leading to increasing transistor density.{{cite news |title=Transistors Keep Moore's Law Alive |url=https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1334068 |access-date=18 July 2019 |work=EETimes |date=12 December 2018}} This made it possible to build high-density IC chips,{{cite web |title=Who Invented the Transistor? |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/who-invented-the-transistor/ |website=Computer History Museum |date=4 December 2013 |access-date=20 July 2019}} with reduced cost-per-transistor as transistor density increased.{{Cite book|title=Understanding Moore's Law: Four Decades of Innovation|last1=Brock|first1=David|last2=Moore|first2=Gordon|publisher=Chemical Heritage Press|year=2006|isbn=0941901416|location=Philadelphia, PA|pages=26}}
In the early 1960s, Gordon Moore, who later founded Intel, recognized that the ideal electrical and scaling characteristics of MOSFET devices would lead to rapidly increasing integration levels and unparalleled growth in electronic applications.{{cite book |last1=Golio |first1=Mike |last2=Golio |first2=Janet |title=RF and Microwave Passive and Active Technologies |date=2018 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=9781420006728 |pages=18–5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MCj9jxSVQKIC&pg=SA18-PA5}} Moore's law, which he described in 1965, and which was later named after him,{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Society|last=Guston|first=David|publisher=SAGE Publications|year=2010|isbn=9781412969871|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=440}} predicted that the number of transistors on an IC for minimum component cost would double every 18 months.{{contradictory inline|date=January 2024|note=the lead says 24 months}}{{cite web|year=1965 |url=ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Articles-Press_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf |title=Cramming more components onto integrated circuits |pages=4 |publisher=Electronics Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218224945/http://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Articles-Press_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf |archive-date=2008-02-18 |url-status=dead |access-date=November 11, 2006 }}{{cite web|year=2005 |url=ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Video-Transcripts/Excepts_A_Conversation_with_Gordon_Moore.pdf |title=Excerpts from A Conversation with Gordon Moore: Moore's Law |pages=1 |publisher=Intel Corporation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218225540/http://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Video-Transcripts/Excepts_A_Conversation_with_Gordon_Moore.pdf |archive-date=2008-02-18 |url-status=dead |access-date=May 2, 2006 }} In 1974, Robert H. Dennard at IBM recognized the rapid MOSFET scaling technology and formulated the related Dennard scaling rule.{{cite web|url=http://cartesianproduct.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/the-end-of-dennard-scaling/|title = The end of Dennard scaling|date = April 15, 2013|last = McMenamin|first = Adrian|access-date = January 23, 2014}}{{cite book |last1=Streetman | first1=Ben G. |last2=Banerjee |first2=Sanjay Kumar | title=Solid state electronic devices | publisher=Pearson | location=Boston | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-292-06055-2 | oclc=908999844 | page=341}} Moore described the development of miniaturization during the 1975 International Electron Devices Meeting, confirming his earlier predictions.
By 2004, electronics companies were producing silicon IC chips with switching MOSFETs that had feature size as small as 130 nanometers (nm) and development was also underway for chips a few nanometers in size through the nanotechnology initiative.{{Cite book|title=Futuristic Materials|last1=Jha|first1=B.B|last2=Galgali|first2=R.K.|last3=Misra|first3=Vibhuti|publisher=Allied Publishers|year=2004|isbn=8177646168|location=New Delhi|pages=55}} The focus is to make components smaller to increase the number that can be integrated into a single wafer and this required critical innovations, which include increasing wafer size, the development of sophisticated metal connections between the chip's circuits, and improvement in the polymers used for masks (photoresists) in the photolithography processes. These last two are the areas where miniaturization has moved into the nanometer range.
Other fields
Miniaturization became a trend in the last fifty years and came to cover not just electronic but also mechanical devices.{{Cite book|title=Science in Popular Culture: A Reference Guide|url=https://archive.org/details/sciencepopularcu00ripe|url-access=limited|last=Van Riper|first=A. Bowdoin|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2002|isbn=0313318220|location=Westport, CT|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sciencepopularcu00ripe/page/n210 193]}} The process for miniaturizing mechanical devices is more complex due to the way the structural properties of mechanical parts change as they are reduced in scale. It has been said that the so-called Third Industrial Revolution (1969 – c. 2015) is based on economically viable technologies that can shrink three-dimensional objects.
In medical technology, engineers and designers have been exploring miniaturization to shrink components to the micro and nanometer range. Smaller devices can have lower cost, be made more portable (e.g.: for ambulances), and allow simpler and less invasive medical procedures.{{cite web| url = https://www.medicalmoulds.com/micro-moulding-and-miniaturisation-in-medtech/| title = Micro Moulding and Miniaturisation in MedTech | website = Micro Systems | date = 17 May 2023 | access-date = 18 May 2023}}
See also
References
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External links
- [http://www.genomicglossaries.com/content/miniaturization_glossary.asp Miniaturization – Glossary definition]