IBM to use DNA to shrink chip size

Scientists at IBM are conducting research into arranging carbon nanotubes - strands of carbon atoms that can conduct electricity - into arrays with DNA molecules.

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Once the nanotube array has been constructed, the laboratory-generated DNA molecules could be removed, leaving an orderly grid of nanotubes. The nanotube grid, conceivably, could function as a data-storage device or perform calculations.

Greg Wallraff, an IBM scientist and a lithography and materials expert working on the project, said: "These are DNA nanostructures that are self-assembled into discrete shapes. Our goal is to use these structures as bread boards on which to assemble carbon nanotubes, silicon nanowires, quantum dots. What we are really making are tiny DNA circuit boards that will be used to assemble other components."

The work, which builds on the research on "DNA origami" conducted by the California Institute of Technology's Paul Rothemund, is only in the preliminary stages. Nonetheless, a growing number of researchers believe designer DNA could become the vehicle for turning the dream of "self-assembly" into reality.

Chips made on these procedures could also be quite small. Potentially, DNA could address, or recognise, features as small as two nanometres (nm). Chips today have features that average 45nm - or 45 billionths of a metre.

Jennifer Cha, an IBM biochemist, said: "There is nothing else out there that we can do that with."

Today, products get manufactured in a top-down approach, with machinery and equipment manipulating raw materials. In self-assembly, the intrinsic chemical and physical properties of molecules, along with environmental factors, coax the raw materials into complex structures.

Getting the raw materials to behave in a precise, orderly manner, however, remains a challenge, which is where DNA comes in. DNA consists of specific chemical bases that bind and react in somewhat predictable ways with each other.

Cha said: "The sequence [of base pairs in DNA] is well known. Most people are acknowledging that DNA and these biological scaffolds are actually quite useful to at least pattern very small systems."

"Building a DNA scaffold is not trivial because you need the biological system to recognise something that doesn't exist at all in biology," said Cha.

Although it's early, progress is being made.

Chipmakers shrink the size of the features of their chips every two years. While this improves the performance, producing smaller circuits has strained the financial and technical resources of the industry. The limits of lithography - used to "draw" circuits - have prompted many, including Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, to predict the pace of progress will slow down.

By using DNA, chipmakers could phase out multi-billion fabrication facilities stocked with lithography systems, which cost tens of millions of dollars.

Original article: IBM experimenting with DNA to build chips from CNET News.com