Microprocessor mega-shocker: self-assembling silicon chips
Over the last several years researchers have been working towards computer chips that use self assembling circuitry built with molecules, which are incredibly small! It seems that some folk’s over at MIT have made a recent leap forward and some of the labor is paying off.
They’ve made a pretty good leap forward recently, by using electron-beam lithography to make patterns of nano-posts on a silicon chip, which are deposited with special polymers, resulting in a hookup between the polymer and the posts which arrange themselves into useful patterns all on their own. The MIT researchers have found the polymers they’re testing capable of producing a wide variety of patterns that are useful in designing circuitry. In the short term, uses could include magnetic nanoscale patterns being stamped onto the surfaces of hard disks using the tech, but there’s a lot more researching to be done before the self-assemblers get busy in consumer goods.
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