Recently, a team of 17 scientists from 7 institutions have demonstrated what they call a bottom-up organic integrated circuit (Smits et al. DOI). The system is based on molecular self-assembly of oligomeric polythiophene molecules on a silicon substrate into a so-called SAMFET which stands for self assemblied monolayer field-effect transistor. Earlier attempts at creating these devices apparently all failed due to defects and poor aromatic stacking. In this particular setup the oligothiophene units form a liquid crystal ordering which certainly helps.

The novel concept was demonstrated in a molecular logic gate as an inverter.