The US computer giant collaborated with California Institute of Technology researchers to develop a way to design microchips that mimic how chains of DNA molecules fold, allowing for processors far smaller and denser than any seen today.<\/p>\n
“This is a way to assemble an electronics device of the future,” said Bill Hinsberg, manager of the lithography group at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in California.<\/p>\n
“It offers a potential way to construct nano-scale devices. The industry has always gone in the direction of making things smaller, because that opens the realm of possibilities.”<\/p>\n
A tenet of the chip industry is Moore’s Law, a history-backed belief thatthe number of transistors that can be placed on a computer circuit doubles every two years, enabling smaller but increasingly powerful computing devices.<\/p>\n
Lithography is a common method of making computer chips that have shrunk to contain technology measuring a mere 22 nanometers. The “DNA origami” method can allow for chip features as slight as 6 nanometers, according to IBM.<\/p>\n
“At some point, it gets more difficult to get smaller,” Barnett said. “We’ve pursued DNA origami as a way to assemble an electronic device of the future.”<\/p>\n
DNA origami chips would have vastly increased data storage capacity and lead to power smaller, faster, smarter devices, IBM said.<\/p>\n
“It took a couple of years, but once you figure out how to do it, it’s easy,” said lead IBM researcher Greg Wallraff.<\/p>\n
The DNA method is to assemble chips “from the molecule up” in a way that costs less than today’s manufacturing methods, the technology titan said.<\/p>\n
IBM expects it will take about a decade before DNA origami technology reaches the marketplace.<\/p>\n
“You’d have to develop whole new ways of fabricating the chips,” Wallraff said. “You have to really change the way you do things.”<\/p>\n