Scientists at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a new generation of microchips, enabling computers to perform faster and more efficiently, and run many more programmes and processes simultaneously.

The chip is composed of three or more processors that are stacked and connected vertically. This means higher speeds, increased multitasking, greater memory and calculating capacity, as well as better functionality and wireless connectivity.

What is pioneering about this 3D microchip?

Until now microchips could only be assembled horizontally, communicating via connections along their edges. Today, they can be stacked on top of one another and connected by several hundred very thin copper pillars.

With a diameter no bigger than a human hair, these pioneering 3D microchips could have multiple applications in a wide range of fields, including telecommunications and medical devices. Considerable research and development work remains to be done, which means that the commercial roll-out of this groundbreaking technology is still some way off.

How does it work?

Prof. Yusuf Leblebici, director of the Microelectronic Systems Laboratory (LSM) at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), explains how this amazing piece of technology actually works (click on video link below):

EPFL-News: A process to make reliable 3D chips developed at EPFL

EPFL

1853 Founding of the Ecole spéciale de Lausanne, a private engineering school
1869 Affiliation with the Académie de Lausanne
1890 Académie de Lausanne becomes the École polytechnique de l'Université de Lausanne (EPUL)
1969 Federal Government takes over the EPUL and creates the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Today the EPFL coordinates six National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCRs): LIVES (Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives), MICS (Mobile Information and Communication Systems), Molecular Oncology, Quantum Photonics, Robotics, and SYNAPSY (Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases).

EPFL in 2011:
8,442 students
4,437 full-time-equivalent members of staff, including 286.9 professors
50 patents
13 start-ups in 2011 alone
Second-best European University in the Engineering, Technology and Computer Sciences Category of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).