Chip manufacturers like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are consistently building smaller and smaller transistors to get faster performance and use less power. They typically etch chip designs onto a glass material called a photomask, which is then used to replicate the pattern onto silicon wafers.

"What Intel does is pattern replication. You have a pattern and that is replicated" from a photomask straight onto the chips, Menon said. Intel's approach involves using electrons, while MIT's approach involves direct pattern creation via light sources, which it says can be more accurate and provide the flexibility to change designs quickly.

"If you do patterning with electron beams, you will always have to worry about accuracy. Your patterns could get slightly distorted, which could have a big impact on device performance. Photons will go where you tell them to go, whereas electrons won't at the nanoscale," Menon said.

While the researchers managed to produce lines 36 nanometers wide, Menon acknowledged that the technology could hit a wall when it gets down to the atomic scale. "The question then becomes -- can you make the molecule smaller? You're probably limited then," Menon said.

The technology could be commercialized in about five years through an MIT spin-off called , according to Menon.