Nanotechnology Electronics Innovations

Wired points us to some exciting news on the nanotechnology front. Teams at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of California Berkeley have had success in developing two new nanotech materials which promise to increase the functionality (and shrink the size) of these atomic level machines.

Wired explains:

Two U.S. teams have developed new materials that may pave the way for ever smaller, faster and more powerful electronics as current semiconductor technology begins to reach the limits of miniaturization.

One team has made tiny transistors — the building block of computer processors — a fraction of the size of those used on advanced silicon chips.

Another has made a film material capable of storing data from 250 DVDs onto a surface the size of a coin.

Both advances, published on Thursday in the journal Science, use nanotechnology — the design and manipulation of materials thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. Nanotechnology has been hailed as a way to make strong, lightweight materials, better cosmetics and even tastier food.

Wired: “Scientists Make Advances On ‘Nano’ Electronics”