Peoples Republic of South Devon

The Small Print

October 24th, 2008

The weekly technology column from those gurus of geek at Plymouth’s at Orange Crate

Up until now a decent pair of reading glasses, a bit of patience, and a masters degree in legal babble was enough to keep you safe from the dreaded ’small print’. But some technical wizards in Japan have just gone and raised the bar…

A research team at the University of Osaka has developed what has been rightfully described as an ‘atomic pen’ which can (get this) inscribe nano-sized text on metal by manipulating individual atoms on the surface. The experiment was based on a previous discovery that silicon atoms on the tip of a atomic force microscope probe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_force_microscope) will interface with the tin atoms in the surface of the semiconductor when in close proximity.

The researchers, after an hour-and-a-half of work, managed to spell out the letters ‘Si’. The completed masterpiece measured 2 x 2 nanometers – roughly 40,000 times smaller than the width of an average human hair. It is impossible to write any smaller than this – fact.

But don’t worry, you won’t be borrowing books the size of drawing pins from the library in ten years’ time. The experiment set out to show the potential of this new technology in a tangible and media-friendly way, but the real life uses run much further than just microscopic graffiti. Possibly the most interesting of these lies in the world of chip manufacturing. If the technology is true to all it promises, we could soon be seeing powerful computers the size of a wristwatch!

So watch this space. Although I can’t promise that you’ll be able to see any developments with the naked eye…

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