Smaller, Smarter Light-Sensing Microchips to Power Electronics
Scientists have developed a way to create super-charged, super-small light sensor microchips. The silicon chips are delivered to the lab, at which the team processes them further with electron beam lithography. Carbon nanotubes are deposited on the chips, which are coded with nanoparticles. The nanotubes are then sensitized to different colors of light. Learn what role DNA plays in the process.
Transcript
00:00:06 What do smartphones, smart cars and dark energy hunting telescopes have in common? Inside all of them are tiny micro chips that capture images from incoming light, smaller, and smarter by the year. Sensors are essential components of electronics enabling major advances in discovery science, and the devices we use every day, but they're reaching physical limits in miniaturization and performance. One way to overcome these limitations is to use new nano-sized materials that convert light into electricity. A team of scientists has developed a way to create supercharged, yet super small light sensor microchips.
00:00:52 Here's how: silicon ships are developed and delivered to Berkeley lab where the team processes them further with electron beam lithography. Scientists deposit carbon nanotubes on the chips that are coded with nanoparticles. The nanotubes are sensitized to different colors of light, depending on the nanoparticles used. To transfer information from the light to the integrated circuit. The carbon nanotubes must be precisely positioned - a challenge the team is solving with DNA, self-assembly techniques. That's right, DNA. Their new approach could lead to more compact, less expensive, and more powerful sensors.
00:01:37 And while sensing is a good initial application, helping to accelerate dark energy studies, 3D terrain mapping and biological imaging to name a few examples, the nanomaterials could also serve as transistors leading to new kinds of electronic devices. Learn more about how Berkeley Lab is addressing microelectronic research challenges by visiting lbl.gov.