Most nanotechnology developments targeted at electronics look ahead to a post-silicon world. But silicon is still firmly with us and every attempt is being made to wring that last drop of capability out of the material, sometimes with the help of nanotechnology.

For the last decade, researchers have been pushing silicon’s limits by straining it. Whether it be more recently the organic semiconductor variety, or just the run-of-the-mill, non-organic variety, strained silicon has been the mainstay of pushing silicon to the very edge of its capabilities. The question is how far can strained-silicon electronics take us?