3M and IBM plan to jointly develop the first adhesives that can be used to package semiconductors into densely stacked silicon “towers.” The companies are aiming to create a new class of materials, which will make it possible to build commercial microprocessors composed of layers of up to 100 separate chips.
Such stacking would allow for dramatically higher levels of integration for information technology and consumer electronics applications. Processors could be tightly packed with memory and networking, for example, into a “brick” of silicon that would create a computer chip 1,000 times faster than today’s fastest microprocessor enabling more powerful smartphones, tablets, computers and gaming devices.
