Growing Silicon Nanowires Where You Want Them

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have found a way to grow silicon nanowires exactly where you need them. According to this news release, this will have an important impact on semiconductor research and might lead to faster computer chips. How does this new approach work? It's surprisingly easy. Raj Solanki and his team used a technique developed decades ago by Bell Labs called vapor-liquid-solid deposition. "The addition of the electrical fields is what's new," said Solanki. He hopes this discovery will lead to gigascale integration (a billion transistors on a chip). This overview gives you more details. It also includes a photo of such silicon nanowires."