14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new scientific paper published in the latest issue of the respected journal Nature Nanotechnology, it would appear that engineered DNA “origami” tends to self-organize, when placed on silicon substrates. The find could have major implications for the design of better circuits and more advanced computer processors, the BBC News informs. The new structures could, for instance, serve as a scaffolding for electrical components situated just six billionths of a meter away from each other.
Leading computer experts believe that making the distance between these components smaller leads to ever smaller devices, and also to much faster computers. In addition, the six-nanometer standard would be approximately eight times smaller than existing technologies, which now revolve around 45 to 50 nanometers.
The breakthrough with the new method will be that DNA itself will be used to store and handle data. Other investigations have already revealed that the organic acid is able to do simple mathematical equations as well, when inside a test tube or in simple bacteria.
But the new technique relies on manufacturing the needed shape of DNA from scratch, as was the case with the new triangles. In order for the anticipated progress in computing to take place, experts will undoubtedly have to use revolutionary, new materials, such as carbon nanowires and graphene, which by definition operate better at the nanoscale.
However, they are incredibly difficult to manipulate. Using the open structures at the end of the DNA strands – under the complementarity principle – could allow researchers to essentially “anchor” these structures together, based on specific schematics.
The new method for fixing DNA to silicon is also extremely promising, because the acid has been inserted in holes of precise shapes, which were previously drilled by experts using existing techniques. The substrate is etched with the desired shapes, and then a liquid containing the origami DNA is poured on it. The DNA molecules appear to bind to the etches on their own, which eliminates a potentially difficult step in the manufacturing process from the minds of experts.
“The combination of this directed self-assembly with today's fabrication technology eventually could lead to substantial savings in the most expensive and challenging part of the chip-making process,” Spike Narayan, who is a science and technology manager at the IBM Almaden Research Center, told the British news outlet. He also added that the technology based on the new find could be ready for industry-wide implementation within a decade.