"We don't just have the material or just how to put them together. We have constructed simple logical devices," he says. "There are huge challenges to meet but that is part of the excitement."
According to Lieber, the problem with current microchip fabrication methods is that the smaller the scale becomes, the higher the cost. Liebers says a "different approach" is necessary to make even smaller chips possible.
The solution: nanowires.
"These are wires as thick as your DNA, ten atoms across, that can be made very long," says Lieber. "They are as small as have been made."
BF: Moore's law lives on
Moore's law, developed by Gordon Moore, one of the founders of the computer processor manufacturer Intel, states that the number of calculations a microchip can do doubles approximately every eighteen months.
The law, which has held true since 1965, is dependent upon continual improvements in manufacturing methods.
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