(Funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense)
Putting 50 billion transistors into a microchip the size of a fingernail is a feat that requires manufacturing methods of nanometer-level precision. The process relies heavily on solvents that carry and deposit materials in each layer โ solvents that can be difficult to handle and toxic to the environment. Now, researchers from Tufts University and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Milan, Italy, have developed a nanomanufacturing approach that uses water as the primary solvent, making it more environmentally compatible and opening the door to the development of devices that combine inorganic and biological materials.