Not just in silicon circuits.

These devices are fabricated by photolithography, the process used in the manufacture of silicon integrated circuits.

Silk dissolves away over time, which can occur immediately after the operation or over the course of several years, leaving the thin silicon circuits in place.

But engineers say that in a few years it will not be possible to gain speed merely by shrinking silicon circuits.

The effect was first discovered in silicon and has potential for achieving energy-efficient silicon photonic integrated circuits.

Its main advantage is that it can be included in a silicon integrated circuit at very low cost.

At Plessey he has started Britain's initial research into silicon solid circuits in 1957.

That suggested this technology could be used for computer chips when the shrinking of silicon circuits hits fundamental physical limits in about a decade.

A description of the brain-inspired silicon circuit appeared in the June 22 issue of the journal Nature.

Whatever the reason, Thompson's hunch that a real silicon circuit would have more tricks up its sleeve than a computer simulation turned out to be absolutely right.