New Discovery Could Revolutionise Semiconductor Manufacture

Researchers from Lund University in Sweden have discovered a revolutionary new way of producing the tiny components that are used in electronic devices. Instead of the usual method of semiconductor production, which involves starting from a substrate such as a silicon wafer, this new approach allows the components to be grown from gold nanoparticles freely suspended in a gas.

The components being produced are called ‘nanowires’ or ‘nanorods’ and this new method of production has several major advantages over traditional methods. The semiconductor wafers usually required are extremely expensive, so growing the structures from gold nanoparticles should help to reduce the cost of this technology. Furthermore, the process is both extremely rapid and continuous, which makes it much more time efficient than the batch-based methods currently being used to manufacture substrates.  Lars Samuelson, Professor of Semiconductor Physics at Lund University, believes that this technology will be commercially available in the next two to four years, with a prototype for solar cells possibly completed within the next two.

As well as being an exciting discovery in itself, this new production method paves the way for further developments in small-scale electronics. Scientists have been able to control the growth of the nanowires by varying the temperature and time of the reaction and the size of the gold nanoparticles, which gives them the necessary control over the production process to allow the properties of the nanowires to be fine-tuned for use in solar cells, LED’s and batteries. In addition, Scientists at Lund University are currently developing a good method to capture the nanowires and make them self-assemble on a substrate such as glass or steel.

With developments continually being made in the production of nanowires, we can expect companies to capitalise on the new technology by developing increasingly cheap and efficient electrical components which will undoubtedly find their way into every aspect of our lives.