043《经济学家》读译参考之四十三：微缩无线－计算机芯片元件无线交互通信.docVIP

TEXT 43 Shrinking wireless 微缩无线（陈继龙 编译） Jun 29th 2006 From The Economist print edition THE miniaturisation of the components of computer chips has proved unstoppable. In each new generation, those components are smaller and more tightly packed than they were in its predecessor. （1）Progress has been so rapid that chip designers are approaching apparently fundamental barriers to further reductions in size and increases in density. One of these is imposed by the need to wire the components in a chip together, so that they can exchange signals. But, in a miniaturised version of the s_______① to wireless communication in the macroscopic world, a group of researchers led by Alain Nogaret of the University of Bath, in England, think they can make chips whose components talk to each other wirelessly. 事实证明，计算机芯片元件的微型化已经势不可挡。新一代芯片的元件越来越小，压缩也越来越紧密。发展如此之快，致使芯片设计者在进一步缩小元件尺寸、提高元件密集度上逐渐遇到了许多根本性难题。其中之一就是必须将某一芯片中的所有元件用线连接起来，以便于各元件之间可以交换信号。不过，英国巴思大学的亚莱恩·诺加雷特负责的一个研究小组认为，通过在微型条件下实现宏观意义上的无线通信，他们可以制造出具有无线信息交互元件的芯片。 At present, the electronics that transmit and receive the radio waves used in wireless devices are too large to be used within individual chips. But Dr Nogaret believes he can o________② this. Last week he and his colleagues at three other British universities, another in Belgium and a research institute in France won the money to try to build such a device. 当前，无线设备中采用的无线电波输送和接收电子器件都过大，无法应用于单个芯片。但是诺加雷特博士相信可以解决这一问题。上周，他和来自另外三所英国大学、一所比利时大学以及法国一研究院的同事们争取到了研制这一设备的资金。 The researchers intend to use the standard lithographic[1] techniques employed in chipmaking to coat a semiconductor with microscopic magnets. （2）These magnets will generate local magnetic fields that point in opposite directions at different points on the chips surface. Electrons have a property called spin[2] that is affected by magnetic fields, and the team hopes to use an effect called inverse electron-spin resonance to make electrons passing through the chip emit microwaves. 研究人员拟应用芯片制作中所用的标准平版印刷技术，将许多极小的磁铁包被到一块半