Scientists have developed a new nano technology which they claim will help make computers smaller, faster and more efficient.
A team at California University has created a way to make square, nanoscale, chemical patterns that may be used in the manufacture of integrated circuit chips 'as early as 2011' -- it is called block co-polymer lithography.
They have also built a process for creating features on silicon wafers between five and 20 nanometres thick.
"For the future we need more powerful microprocessors that use less energy. And, if you can shrink all these things down, you get both. You get power and energy efficiency in one package.
"We've come up with this new blending approach, called block co-polymer lithography, or BCP. It essentially relies on a natural self-assembly process.
"Just like proteins in the body, these molecules come together and self assemble into a pattern. And so we use that pattern