The microchip revolution has seen a steady shrinking of features on silicon chips, packing in more transistors and wires to boost chips' speed and data capacity. But in recent years, the technologies behind these chips have begun to bump up against fundamental limits, such as the wavelengths of light used for critical steps in chip manufacturing. Now, a new technique offers a way to break through one of these limits, possibly enabling further leaps in the computational power packed into a tiny sliver of silicon.

Source: Sharpening the lines: Advance could...uest for more compact, faster microchips