Duke University engineers have adapted a computer aided design and manufacturing process to reproduce nanoscale structures with features sized on the order of single molecules.

The technology allows for repetitive engineering surface features at the nanoscale, and extends the typical 2-D nanopatterning schema into the third dimension. The system used atomic force microscopes to reliably produce 3-D, nanometer-scale silicon oxide nanostructures through a process called anodization nanolithography, in which oxides are built on semiconducting and metallic surfaces by applying an electric field in the presence of tiny amounts of water.