Ars Technica: Smaller electronics from...bacteria???

Ars Technica: Smaller electronics from...bacteria???

Smaller electronics from...bacteria???

Posted 11/26/2002 - 5:29PM, by zAmboni
Problems may develop as semiconductors are shrunk to smaller and smaller processes, Nvidia can attest to that. New techniques and methods need to be developed in the sub-micron world and researchers at NASA Ames Research Center have elicited help from "extremophile" bacteria in building nanoscale structures. Why start from scratch in creating ordered structures when nature has already done so...packaged in tiny self-replicating factories?

In an online version of Nature Materials, researchers in the Ames labs outlined a technique for creating nanometer scale quantum dot arrays using a protein from the bacteria Sulfolobus shibatae. They isolated heat shock protein (HSP60) from the bacteria and engineered it to bind quantum dots. The protein self assembles into a ringed structure which forms an ordered lattice when crystallized. Since it is derived from an extremophile bacteria, the protein is stable to extreme temperatures and pH conditions.

"We apply the crystals to a substrate such as a silicon wafer, and we add a gold or semiconductor slurry," said McMillan. "The tiny particles of gold or semiconductor (cadmium selenide/zinc sulfide) stick to the lattices." According to McMillan, the minute pieces that adhere to the protein lattice are ‘quantum dots’ that are about one to 10 nanometers across. Today’s standard computer chips have features that are roughly 130 nanometers apart.

The researchers hope to use these materials for use in memory, logic and sensor chips. I'm sure Silicon Valley will find some use for it. It may be strange seeing bacteria brewing vats at TMSC fabs though.