Microprocessor mega-shocker: self-assembling silicon chips could lead to ever smaller circuitry
By Laura June 
posted March 17th 2010 9:32PM
posted March 17th 2010 9:32PM
Researchers have been hard at work for the past few years trying to build computer chips using self-assembling circuitry built of molecules -- meaning that they're incredibly teensy. Some researchers at MIT seem to have gotten the hang of this nano-business, according to a paper just published in Nature Nanotechnology (which also happens to be our favorite magazine after Offset Print Enthusiast). 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.
Fascinating!
@WastedxYears
Fascinating!
@WastedxYears
Fascinating!
Self-assembling? :O I think we're one step closer to inventing Primus.
@blitzkrieg
Dude, we've had Primus for 26 years.
@blitzkrieg for some reason your username just reminded me of a giant kilometre tall robot punching a green battleship in the rings of saturn. cheers.
@WastedxYears Fascinating!
But they didn't invent the finglonger!
@Raffi256
But WHAT IF they did?
Eric Drexler will be proud.
Google patents this technology and process.. Five years later, Skynet.
@trevoreon
It will take five years for electron-beam lithography they use to become mainstream.
So imagine how long this will take if ever it will
You mean Skynet will create itself? *gasp*
Should have accompanied this article with a picture of the Replicators from Stargate.
... you've been infected with self assembling mind-control bionic-chip-virus ...
What happens when Dell injects my Core i20 with some material that turns it into a Core i10 after 6 months!
@airbag888 It will enslave you and everyone you love.
@zero1221
As long as it's in a place where we got cheetos and hotties..
Ignorance is bliss
They're gonna assemble themselves and take over the world!
Seriously anyone else only seeing the problem with these and not the benefit?