Optical photolithography techniques are approaching physical and economic limits that will drastically reduce the current scaling rate of device miniaturization. New technologies being investigated include Next Generation Lithography (NGL) and Chemically Assembled Electronic Nanotechnology (CAEN), which hold the promise of extremely high densities and sub-10nm feature sizes. However, these tech...

NetrinG proteins and NetrinG ligands (NGLs) are adhesive ligand/receptor pairs that influence axon outgrowth and synaptogenesis. In humans, NetrinG mutations are correlated with developmental disorders of cognition, including schizophrenia and Rett syndrome. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Seiradake et al (2011) report the crystal structures of NetrinGs and NGLs separately and in complex, re...

Advances in lithography have contributed significantly to the advancement of the integrated circuit technology. While nonoptical next-generation lithography (NGL) solutions are being developed, optical lithography continues to be the workhorse for high-throughput very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) lithography. Extending optical lithography to the resolution levels necessary to support today’s a...

We consider special critical points in multicomponent fluid mixtures, where critical phenomena occur between three phases simultaneously. We show that although such points may be the intersection of three lines of critical points, they are not in general analogous to the tricritical points originally proposed by Gr iffiths. Rather the three lines are part of a single surface of critical points ...

The end of optical lithography has been so often predicted (incorrectly) that such predictions are now a running joke among lithographers. Yet optical lithography does have real, physical limitations and even more real economic limits, and an accurate estimation of these limits is essential for planning potential next generation lithography (NGL) efforts. This paper will review the two types of...