They're researchers stuck in the middle—between theories of varying precision, between models of varying size, even between the worlds of theoretical and experimental chemistry. Like a farm cut into a mountain foothill, it's a challenging but fertile row to hoe.

The team, out of Stanford University and headed by Charles Musgrave, studies the chemical reactions that occur on the surface of microchips during their manufacture. By looking at the reactions at the atomic level, team members hope to illuminate the basic science that will improve production and perhaps lead to novel applications and devices.

A cluster of nine silicon atoms used to model a section of a chip's surface in the Stanford team's deposition simulations. The color-coded isodensity surface shows electrostatic potential.

"Attempts to computationally prototype the reactors used to manufacture computer chips have really only been around for about 10 years," says Musgrave, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science. "In order to create these prototypes, you have to be able to model and change all the elements of the reactor used to build the chip, but you also need to fully understand the chemistry at the chip's surface. That's where we come in."

With the help of an Alliance SGI Origin2000 supercomputer at NCSA, two members of the team—PhD candidates Collin Mui and Yuniarto Widjaja—are becoming particularly "expert at predicting the energetics and behavior of the species that populate the surfaces," according to Musgrave.

Access Online | Posted 10-23-2001