A faster, cheaper method for making transistors and chips

It may soon be possible manufacture the miniscule structures that make up transistors and silicon chips rapidly and inexpensively. EPFL scientists are currently investigating the use of dynamic stencil lithography, a recent but not yet perfected method, for creating nanostructures. Faster, less expensive, and better. These are the advantages of dynamic stencil lithography, a new way of fabricating nanostructures, such as the tiny structures on transistors and silicon chips. The principle of the "stencil" technique for making structures at the nanometer scale (a millionth of a millimeter) is simple: a substrate - a Silicon (Si) wafer or flexible plastics - is placed in an evaporator. On top of it stands a stencil with openings, called apertures, about 100-200 nanometers in size. During the metal evaporation, the stencil acts like a mask, and only the metal that passes through the apertures lands on the substrate.