IBM uses DNA for smaller chips

IBM is researching the use of carbon nanotubes to aid in the miniaturisation of chips.

The company is developing a technique to arrange carbon nanotubes into arrays with DNA molecules. The nanotubes are strands of carbon atoms which can conduct electricity.

When the nanotube array has been constructed, the laboratory-generated DNA molecules can be removed, leaving a nanotube grid which could operate as a data-storage device. It may also be able to perform calculations.

According to Greg Wallraff, a scientist at IBM, the company is working on using DNA nanostructures as a framework on which to assemble carbon nanotubes, silicon nanowires and quantum dots.

Research is still at an early stage, but scientists are optimistic that the technology could lead to self-assembly.

The procedure will also enable the manufacture of chips with features as small as two nanometres (nm). The technology has the ability to address, or recognise, features as small as two nanometres (nm).