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A row is brewing over who invented the spherical microchips proposed by Ball
Semiconductor (This Week, 25 July, p 7). AAKI Semiconductor of Dallas, Texas,
may have filed the first patents on the technology. AAKI’s first application (WO
98/25090) for a patent on its system dates from December 1996. Rivals must now
prove they filed earlier. Normal chips are made from flat wafers, which can be
ruined by dust. Spherical chips could be rolled through sealed tubes,
eliminating the need for vast clean rooms and greatly reducing production costs.