THE NEW DIRECTED SELF-ASSEMBLY PROCESS CAN YIELD NEAR-PERFECT NANO-ARRAYS
02 June 2005 - National Science Foundation

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have taken another big step toward complex, nanoscale electronic devices that can be directed to assemble themselves automatically, a development that would allow manufacturers to mass-produce "nanochips" having circuit elements only a few molecules across, roughly 10 times smaller than the features in current-generation chips.

Writing in the June 3 issue of the journal Science, UW chemical engineer Paul Nealey and his colleagues describe how carefully chosen mixtures of polymers can be made to assemble themselves into nanoscale patterns that turn corners and exhibit other complex geometries. Their approach builds upon a similar technique they demonstrated two years ago, using a simpler mix of polymers that could self-assemble only into regular, straight-line patterns of stripes.

The researchers carried out their work at the university's new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center on Templated Synthesis and Assembly at the Nanoscale, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.

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