Researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a semiconductor chip insulator using artificial sapphire, which could lengthen the battery life of smartphones. This material has excellent insulation properties and could be used to develop low-power chips in the future.

　　Traditional chips, also known as integrated circuits, feature complex and interconnected structures on a silicon wafer substrate. Transistors within the chips regulate the current while dielectric layers made of insulating materials isolate the various conductive layers to prevent current leakage. The dielectric layers also act as thermal barriers, helping manage heat distribution within the chip.

　　As electronic products continue to get thinner with multiple functional demands, the thickness of two-dimensional integrated circuits is only one or a few atomic layers, which poses challenges for dielectric materials.

　　These dielectric materials typically act as insulators in chips, but their effectiveness diminishes at the nanoscale — that's one of the reasons smartphones tend to become hot and have a short battery life.

　　To address this issue, the researchers created artificial sapphire dielectric wafers using a novel intercalation oxidation process. "The aluminum oxide we created is essentially artificial sapphire, identical to natural sapphire in terms of crystal structure, dielectric properties and insulation characteristics," Tian Zi'ao, a researcher involved in the project, said.

　　"By using intercalation oxidation technology on single-crystal aluminum, we were able to produce this single-crystal aluminum oxide dielectric material," added Di Zengfeng, another researcher. "Unlike traditional amorphous dielectric materials, our crystalline sapphire can achieve exceptionally low leakage at just one-nanometer level."

　　This advancement is not only significant for extending smartphone battery life but also supports the development of low-power chips for artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.