Self assembly is seen as key to enabling nanotechnology, but until now the block co-polymer method, which directs nanomaterials to create moulds and then fills them in with a target material, was too slow to be useful.More info at PC Pro.
However, the Canadian researchers found that by switching from old-fashioned convective cookers to newfangled microwave ovens the process time was reduced from days to less than a minute.
“By using microwaves, we have dramatically decreased the cooking time for a specific molecular self-assembly process used to assemble block co-polymers, and have now made it a viable alternative to the conventional lithography process for use in patterning semi-conductors,” the researchers said.
Researchers develop self-assembling semiconductors with microwaves
Posted on Saturday, October 30 2010 @ 5:36 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Scientists at Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) have found a way to use microwaves to dramatically reduce the process time of self-assembling semiconductors: