IBM Scientists Harness DNA Self-Assembly to Build Faster, Cheaper Chips

The next generation of semiconductor technology could take a page from nature’s book, letting DNA do the heavy lifting. Straight-laced researchers at IBM, afraid of breaking Moore’s Law, have figured out a way to combine lithographic patterning and DNA self-assembly to create semiconductors that built themselves into chips that are smaller, more efficient and less expensive than anything made conventionally. Building microcircuits on the face of a silicon chip is a very precise, and therefore costly, process, and finding ways to cram more and more circuits onto smaller and smaller chips has driven the cost of increasing computing power skyward. But IBM’s team, in conjunction with California Institute of Technology researchers, think they’ve figured out a way to coax DNA molecules into self-assembling the necessary nano-structures to pack increased power onto less silicon, without the use of an army of costly machines. DNA origami—in which a...

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