Moore's law marches on: In the quest for faster and cheaper computers, scientists have imaged pore（气孔，小孔） structures in insulation¹（绝缘，隔离） material at sub-nanometer scale for the first time. Understanding these structures could substantially enhance computer performance and power usage of integrated circuits（集成电路） , say Semiconductor² Research Corporation (SRC) and Cornell University scientists. To help maintain the ever-increasing power and performance benefits of semiconductors³ – like the speed and memory trend described in Moore's law – the industry has introduced very porous⁴（能渗透的，有气孔的） , low-dielectric constant（电容率，介电常数） materials to replace silicon⁵ dioxide as the insulator⁶ between nano-scaled copper⁷ wires. This has sped up the electrical signals sent along these copper wires inside a computer chip, and at the same time reduced power consumption.

"Knowing how many of the molecule-sized voids in the carefully-engineered Swiss cheese survive in an actual device will greatly affect future designs of integrated circuits," said David Muller, Cornell University professor of applied⁸ and engineering physics, and co-director of Kavli Institute for Nanoscale Science at Cornell. "The techniques we developed look deeply, as well as in and around the structures, to give a much clearer picture so complex processing and integration⁹ issues can be addressed."

The scientists understand that the detailed¹⁰ structure and connectivity of these nanopores have profound control on the mechanical strength, chemical stability and reliability¹¹ of these dielectrics. With today's announcement, researches now have a nearly atomic understanding of the three-dimensional pore structures of low-k materials required to solve these problems.

Welcome to the atomic world: SRC and Cornell researchers were able to devise（设计，发明） a method to obtain 3-D images of the pores using electron tomography（X线断层摄影术） , leverages¹²（杠杆作用） imaging advances used for CT scans and MRIs in the medical field, says Scott List, director of interconnect and packaging sciences at SRC, at Research Triangle Park, N.C. "Sophisticated software extracts 3-D images from a series of 2-D images taken at multiple angles. A 2-D picture is worth a thousand words, but a 3-D image at near atomic resolution gives the semiconductor industry new insights into scaling low-k materials for several additional technology nodes."