IBM scientists to use DNA to make chips

Scientists at IBM are experimenting with using DNA molecules as the basis of smaller, more powerful computer chips.

The company is researching ways in which DNA can arrange itself into patterns on the surface of a chip, and then act as a kind of scaffolding on to which millions of tiny carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles are deposited. That network of nanotubes and nanoparticles could act as the wires and transistors on future computer chips, the IBM scientists said.

For decades chip makers have been etching smaller and smaller patterns onto the surface of chips to speed performance and reduce power consumption. The fastest PC chips today are manufactured using a 45 nanometre process, but as the process dips below 22 nanometres in a few years, the assembly and fabrication of chips becomes far more difficult and expensive, said Bob Allen senior manager of chemistry and materials at IBM Research. [Detail]