IBM Corp scientists at the Almaden Research Centre in San Jose, California, have been making further breakthroughs in nanoelectronics, or molecule-building: after demonstrations last year dragging individual atoms of Xenon gas around to form patterns, using an IBM-invented electron tunnelling microscope (CI No 1,401), IBM has now been using new Silicon techniques to show how to pluck individual Silicon atoms from a surface and place them in precise locations; the research raises the possibility of building electronic circuits with components that measure only one atom or molecule across – today, the most advanced circuit chips are measured in microns, or millionths of a metre – some 1,000 times coarser than atomic-scale devices that would be measured in nanometres.
