As silicon-based photolithography reaches its feasible limits resulting in leaking electricity and rising manufacturing costs, manufacturers are searching for a new approach to make semiconductors. To make smaller circuits more quickly and less expensively, Intel and IBM are seeking to reduce the size of the smallest component from 32 nm to 7 nm using carbon nanotubes. HP Labs is working on technology that would replace transistors with memristors and replace silicon with titanium dioxide. Both methods enable three-dimensional configurations, but switches may not turn on and off quickly and accurately.

Source: The New York Times