Self-Assembling Origami-Like DNA Scaffolding Could Deliver High-Efficiency 3D Electronics
Researchers demonstrate how specially-coded DNA strands can be used as a scaffold onto which 3D electronics can be built.
Researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Minnesota, Columbia University, Stony Brook University, the Institute for Basic Science, and Yonsei University have worked together to come up with a new approach to building three-dimensional nanometer-scale electronic devices — using DNA scaffolding.
"Going from 2D to 3D can dramatically increase the density and computing power of electronics," says corresponding author Oleg Gang of the potential impact of the team's work. "3D electronic architectures that imitate the natural 3D structure of the brain may prove enormously more effective at running brain-mimicking artificial intelligence systems than existing 2D architectures."
Traditional electronic devices work, effectively, in just two dimensions. While there have been efforts to extend them into the third dimension, in particular as hitting ever-harder component density goals becomes increasingly challenging, they are largely confined to layering multiple two-dimensional circuits atop each other or extending only individual components beyond a flat plane. The problem: the devices themselves are manufactured in a top-down, subtractive process.
The team's proposed solution: using an origami-like property of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the fundamental building block of life, in which strands coded with particular molecules can automatically fold themselves into 2D and 3D shapes — then be fixed in place with additional DNA "staples," to prevent them from coming undone. These self-assembling shaped DNA strands can then be used scaffolding in the production of a 3D electronic device.
"We've demonstrated that not only can we create 3D structures from DNA, but integrate them into microchips as part of the workflow of how electronic devices are fabricated," Gang explains of the project. "We can place thousands of these structures at specific sites on silicon wafers in a scalable way. This demonstrates that we can drastically change how we fabricate complex 3D electronic devices.
"For a long time, we have worked on what phenomena might help build a self-assembling electronic device. It's exciting to now actually demonstrate these futuristic ideas, to actually make an operational device using these bottom-up fabrication processes. The next dream is creating 3D circuitry."
The team's work is available in the journal Science Advances under open-access terms.