Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay) has partnered IT services major Tata Consultancy Services to develop quantum diamond microchip imager.
TCS said it would be India’s first advanced sensing tool to “unlock new levels of precision in the examination of semiconductor chips, reduce chip failures and improve the energy efficiency of electronic devices.”
Over the next two years, experts from TCS will work with Dr Kasturi Saha, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering of IIT-Bombay to develop the quantum imaging platform.
Semiconductor chips are an essential component of all modern electronic devices, making them smart and efficient. With the ability to process data and complete tasks, these chips act as the brain of devices across industries.
Professor Saha said, “By working together, we aim to transform various sectors, including electronics and healthcare, and propel India forward through ground-breaking technologies and products aligned with National Quantum Mission’s Quantum Sensing and Metrology vertical.”
TCS said that this partnership is aligned with India’s National Quantum Mission – an initiative by the government of India to nurture, and scale up scientific and industrial R&D in Quantum Technology (QT).
As semiconductors continue to shrink in size, traditional sensing methods lack the precision and capabilities to detect anomalies in the chips.
This new imager tool can image magnetic fields, enabling a non-invasive and non-destructive mapping of semiconductor chips, much like an MRI at a hospital.
It uses the defects in a diamond’s structure, known as Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centres, together with the other hardware and software for detecting and characterising anomalies in semiconductor chips.
“These diagnostic capabilities will have significant implications for failure analysis, device development, and various optimisation processes,” TCS said.
With its advanced capabilities to identify chip defects such as current leakages and enable visualisation of three-dimensional charge flow in multi-layer chips, it is expected to have wide applications in microelectronics, biological, and geological imaging, and fine-scale imaging of magnetic fields.
