DNA Scaffolding Technique Promises Sub-22 nm Lithography

Self assembly and lithography combine to create promising technique that could lead to 6 nm resolution

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In a paper to be published in next month’s Nature Nanotechnology, Researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center and the California Institute of Technology have developed a way to use DNA origami structures as a quasi circuit board or scaffold for precisely assembling components at resolutions as small as 6 nm.

The attractiveness of the process is that it utilizes currently used lithography techniques. Spike Narayan, manager, Science & Technology at the  IBM Almaden Research Center is quoted in the IBM press release:

“The cost involved in shrinking features to improve performance is a limiting factor in keeping pace with Moore’s Law and a concern across the semiconductor industry,” he says. “The combination of this directed self-assembly with today’s fabrication technology eventually could lead to substantial savings in the most expensive and challenging part of the chip-making process.”

The BBC’s coverage of the same story followed Narayan’s quote above with the rather sobering reality that it could take as long as 10 years to see this technology integrated into the semiconductor industry.

Whenever you see the figure “ten years’ used in future projections you could just as easily add another zero to that number. It’s sort of like saying, “Who knows?”

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