Semiconductor, nano technologies 'married'

MADISON, Wis., Sept. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have used a doping technique that brings nanomechanical devices into the world of semiconductor technology.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers said their work marks the advent of a new class of nanomechanical devices.

"This is a marriage of two different fields," said electrical and computer engineering Professor Robert Blick, that opens the door to a host of new tiny mechanical devices that can be manipulated with a single electron or, in the case of a biological application, a single molecule such as a protein.

In the study, conducted using a focused ion beam writer, Blick, researcher Dominik Scheible and colleagues were able to deposit a small plume of gallium atoms into a silicon nanomachine and confer electromechanical properties to it.

"This constitutes a direct combination of mechanical and electric tunability with unprecedented precision," the researchers said. "This will considerably enhance the mechanical properties of (nanomachines)."

The research is reported in the journal Physica Status Solidi.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

NewsTrack: Semiconductor, nano technologies 'married'