Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a new way to make computer chips by combining metal lenses that focus light through the excitation of plasmons (surface electrons) on the lens to create line patterns 80 nanometers wide, and theoretically as small as 5 to 10 nanometers.

The technology could lead to microprocessors more than 10 times smaller and ultra-high density disks that can hold 10 to 100 times more data than disks today.

Source: UC Berkeley news release