Breakthrough Could Make Electronics Smaller and Better: Surprising Low-Tech Tool -- Scotch Tape -- W - Polidicks

[url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130903194159.htm[/url] [IMG]http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/09/130903194159.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE][B]An international group of researchers from the University of Minnesota, Argonne National Laboratory and Seoul National University have discovered a groundbreaking technique in manufacturing nanostructures that has the potential to make electrical and optical devices smaller and better than ever before. A surprising low-tech tool of Scotch Magic tape ended up being one of the keys to the discovery.[/B] Combining several standard nanofabrication techniques -- with the final addition of the Scotch Magic tape -- researchers at the University of Minnesota created extremely thin gaps through a layer of metal and patterned these tiny gaps over the entire surface of a four-inch silicon wafer. The smallest gaps were only one nanometer wide, much smaller than most researchers have been able to achieve. In addition, the widths of the gaps could be controlled on the atomic level. This work provides the basis for producing new and better nanostructures that are at the core of advanced electronic and optical devices. One of the potential uses of nanometer-scale gaps in metal layers is to squeeze light into spaces much smaller than is otherwise possible. Collaborators at Seoul National University, led by Prof. Dai-Sik Kim, and Argonne National Laboratory, led by Dr. Matthew Pelton, showed that light could readily be squeezed through these gaps, even though the gaps are hundreds or even thousands of times smaller than the wavelength of the light used. Researchers are very interested in forcing light into small spaces because this is a way of boosting the intensity of the light. The collaborators found that the intensity inside the gaps is increased by as much as 600 million times. "Our technology, called atomic layer lithography, has the potential to create ultra-small sensors with increased sensitivity and also enable new and exciting experiments at the nanoscale like we've never been able to do before," said Sang-Hyun Oh, one of the lead researchers on the study and a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering. "This research also provides the basis for future studies to improve electronic and photonic devices." One of the most surprising outcomes of the research is that Scotch Magic tape was one of the keys to the discovery. Etching one-nanometer-wide gaps into metals is not feasible with existing tools. Instead, the researchers in Oh's team constructed the nano-gaps by layering atomic-scale thin films on the sides of metal patterns and then capping the structure with another metal layer. No expensive patterning tools were needed to form the gaps this way, but it was challenging to remove the excess metals on top and expose the tiny gaps. During a frustrating struggle of trying to find a way to remove the metal films, University of Minnesota Ph.D. student and lead author of the study Xiaoshu Chen found that by using simple Scotch Magic tape, the excess metals could be easily removed. "The Scotch tape works nicely, which was unexpected," said Oh. "Our technique is so simple yet can create uniform and ultra-small gaps like we've never been able to do before. We hope that it will rapidly be taken up by many researchers."[/QUOTE] I'm disappointed it wasn't duct tape.

thought the scotch tape was providing the one-nanometer-wide gaps in pictures A and B, but they're using it like a lint roller.

Scotch tape is the key - it was even used to get single atom thick sheets of graphene at first!

Moores law will continue, gentlemen. Edit: for now.

Scotch tape is the new carbon nanotube, it can even [url=http://www.nature.com/news/2008/012345/full/news.2008.1185.html]emit X-rays[/url]

[QUOTE=madjawa;42077759]Scotch tape is the new carbon nanotube, it can even [url=http://www.nature.com/news/2008/012345/full/news.2008.1185.html]emit X-rays[/url][/QUOTE] at the end it says it could be fucking causing nuclear fusion like what

[QUOTE=madjawa;42077759]Scotch tape is the new carbon nanotube, it can even [url=http://www.nature.com/news/2008/012345/full/news.2008.1185.html]emit X-rays[/url][/QUOTE] What is it that scotch tape cannot do?!

scotch tape is the new duct tape

[QUOTE=Jeep-Eep;42077523]Moores law will continue, gentlemen.[/QUOTE] Theories are not always right, that is why they are called theories.

[QUOTE=the article]One of the potential uses of nanometer-scale gaps in metal layers is to squeeze light into spaces much smaller than is otherwise possible. Collaborators at Seoul National University, led by Prof. Dai-Sik Kim, and Argonne National Laboratory, led by Dr. Matthew Pelton, showed that light could readily be squeezed through these gaps, even though the gaps are hundreds or even thousands of times smaller than the wavelength of the light used. Researchers are very interested in forcing light into small spaces because this is a way of boosting the intensity of the light. The collaborators found that the intensity inside the gaps is increased by as much as 600 million times.[/QUOTE] Why does this remind me so much of the heisenberg uncertainty principle.

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;42081002]Theories are not always right, that is why they are called theories.[/QUOTE] There's a difference between something like Moore's Law (no matter how much you postpone it with things like this, computers will eventually be bound by tiny size limits) and an actual scientific theory, like the theory of relativity or the theory of gravity or what have you.

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;42081002]Theories are not always right, that is why they are called theories.[/QUOTE] Hypothesis Theory Law Three distinctly different things in science.

There will be a point where you can't make them any smaller, because at some point you are dealing with transistors the size of a few atoms. So Moore's law will have to stop at some point, unless we find some sort of breakthrough that circumvents that problem.

[QUOTE=madjawa;42077759]Scotch tape is the new carbon nanotube, it can even [url=http://www.nature.com/news/2008/012345/full/news.2008.1185.html]emit X-rays[/url][/QUOTE] god that looks cool as hell

[QUOTE=Splash Attack;42081502]There will be a point where you can't make them any smaller, because at some point you are dealing with transistors the size of a few atoms. So Moore's law will have to stop at some point, unless we find some sort of breakthrough that circumvents that problem.[/QUOTE] Lol quarks for transistors! Nahhhhhhhhh what if i misplaced it?

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;42081002]Theories are not always right, that is why they are called theories.[/QUOTE] A theory is a generalisation and provable hypothesis of how something works. It can be testable, applicable and used practically. The word 'theory' does not mean the same thing in science as it does in general language. Theories can be superseded when another, more testable/applicable theory proves more effective, but that doesn't make theories overall any less valid, and certainly NOT why they're called theories.

[QUOTE=!LORD M!;42080972]What is it that scotch tape cannot do?![/QUOTE] Tape things.

[QUOTE=Reshy;42076235][url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130903194159.htm[/url] [IMG]http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/09/130903194159.jpg[/IMG] I'm disappointed it wasn't duct tape.[/QUOTE] na that's how to make electronics of the future indestructible

[QUOTE=madjawa;42077759]Scotch tape is the new carbon nanotube, it can even [url=http://www.nature.com/news/2008/012345/full/news.2008.1185.html]emit X-rays[/url][/QUOTE] I'm so glad that's not common knowledge or scotch tape would be banned in schools and airports.

why didn't they try this gecko stuff that i have in my car for holding my cellphone/gps.... its like super sticky till it gets dusty, but then you wash it off and its still super sticky. i even took it out, washed it, let it dry for a minute, then stuck it straight onto a steel door and used it as a doornob [editline]5th September 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=zombini;42083566]I'm so glad that's not common knowledge or scotch tape would be banned in schools and airports.[/QUOTE] fuck, what next? cool it down to absolute 0 and it catches dark matter or nutrenos or dark-matter?

[QUOTE=!LORD M!;42080972]What is it that scotch tape cannot do?![/QUOTE] Stop a child from opening his presents.

[QUOTE=Brt5470;42083594]Stop a child from opening his presents.[/QUOTE] You haven't seen my dad wrap presents then.

[QUOTE=madjawa;42077759]Scotch tape is the new carbon nanotube, it can even [url=http://www.nature.com/news/2008/012345/full/news.2008.1185.html]emit X-rays[/url][/QUOTE] damnit you beat me to my favorite fact about tape

The xray thing only works in a vacuum though, so it wont be banned.

[QUOTE=muffinmastah;42087479]The xray thing only works in a vacuum though, so it wont be banned.[/QUOTE] But vacuum cleaners!