In this schematic of plasmonic lithography, the plasmonic flying head produces nanoscale patterns onto the spinning disk covered with photo sensitive chemicals. Ultraviolet light is delivered through the flying head onto the plasmonic lenses, which are used as optical styluses in this process. The setup resembles a stylus playing a record on traditional LP turntables.

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley are reporting a new way of creating computer chips that could revitalise optical lithography, a patterning technique that dominates modern integrated circuits manufacturing.

By combining metal lenses that focus light through the excitation of electrons - or plasmons - on the lens’ surface with a “flying head” that resembles the stylus on the arm of an old-fashioned LP turntable and is similar to those used in hard disk drives, the researchers were able to create line patterns only 80 nanometers wide at speeds up to 12 meters per second, with the potential for higher resolution detail in the near future.

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Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a super-compact high-resolution microscope, small enough to fit on a finger tip. The ‘microscopic microscope’ operates without lenses, but has the magnifying power of a top quality optical microscope.

The new instrument combines traditional computer-chip technology with microfluidics – the channelling of flow fluid flow at incredibly small scales. An entire optofluidic chip is about the size of a quarter, although the part of the device that images objects is only size of Washington’s nose on that quarter.

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