DNA is the blueprint for life. Could it also become the template for making a new generation of computer chips based not on silicon, but on an experimental material known as graphene? Thats the theory behind a process that Stanford chemical engineering professor Zhenan Bao reveals in Nature Communications. <\/p>\n
Bao and her co-authors, former post-doctoral fellows Anatoliy Sokolov and Fung Ling Yap, hope to solve a problem clouding the future of electronics: consumers expect silicon chips to continue getting smaller, faster and cheaper, but engineers fear that this virtuous cycle could grind to a halt. Why has to do with how silicon chips work. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Everything starts with the notion of the semiconductor, a type of material that can be induced to either conduct or stop the flow of electricity. Silicon has long been the most popular semiconductor material used to make chips. <\/p>\n
The basic working unit on a chip is the transistor. Transistors are tiny gates that switch electricity on or off, creating the zeroes and ones that run software. <\/p>\n
To build more powerful chips, designers have done two things at the same time: theyve shrunk transistors in size and also swung those gates open and shut faster and faster. <\/p>\n
The net result of these actions has been to concentrate more electricity in a diminishing space. So far that has produced small, faster, cheaper chips. But at a certain point, heat and other forms of interference could disrupt the inner workings of silicon chips. <\/p>\n
\"We need a material that will let us build smaller transistors that operate faster using less power,\" Bao said. <\/p>\n
Graphene has the physical and electrical properties to become a next-generation semiconductor material if researchers can figure out how to mass-produce it. <\/p>\n
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Visually it resembles chicken wire. Electrically this lattice of carbon atoms is an extremely efficient conductor. <\/p>\n
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\nUsing DNA to assemble a transistor from graphene<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"