Motorola develops faster computer chip

AP Business WriterNEW YORK (AP) -- Motorola Inc. says it has developed a computer chip that runs 35 times faster than today's models, an innovation it hopes will lead to faster, smaller and cheaper cell phones, computers and other telecommunications equipment.

While praising the company's innovative solution, scientists were cautious about predicting how soon devices based on the technology might reach the market.

Motorola says it has solved a 30-year-old challenge: creating a semiconductor that combines the durability and economy of silicon with the high speed of crystal compounds used in lasers and fiber optic equipment.

Its scientists did so by layering gallium arsenide, a fast but brittle semiconductor, onto silicon by way of a spongy middle, which binds the two pieces.

"It's a monumental change in the constraints on the construction of semiconductor systems," said Dennis Roberson, chief technology officer of Motorola. "We've opened the door on a whole new world."

The new wafers will be licensed next year, but the company doesn't expect to see products on the market for a couple of years.

Motorola has applied for 270 patents for the materials and production process of the semiconductor, which it says runs at 70 gigahertz. The fastest processors in personal computers run at 2 Ghz.

While silicon has been the workhorse of the electronics industry, it is a relatively slow transmitter of signals. Electrons zip much faster through crystals of gallium arsenide and indium phosphide, which are also good transmitters of light.

Cell phones and other devices now use separate semiconductors of each material.

"This brings a way of drastically lowering the price of high-performance compound semiconductor devices," says Darrell Schlom, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State University, who spent a month this summer at Motorola's lab evaluating the new semiconductors.

"If it works, it could bring technologies like radar only affordable to the military to the consumer, but there are a lot of things that sound really good in the lab that never quite make it to the shelves."

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola has been losing money and struggling to regain investors' confidence. The company announced 30,000 job cuts this year, hit hard by downturns in its cell phone and semiconductor operations.