CHICAGO:TWO US teams have developed new materials that may pave the way for ever smaller, faster and more powerful electronics, as current semiconductor technology begins to reach the limits of miniaturisation.

One team has made tiny transistors - the building block of computer processors - a fraction of the size of those used on advanced silicon chips.

Another has made a film material capable of storing data from 250 DVDs on a surface the size of a coin.

Both advances, published on Thursday in the journal Science, use nanotechnology - the design and manipulation of materials thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Nanotechnology has been hailed as a way to make strong, lightweight materials, better cosmetics and even tastier food.

"We have demonstrated that we can make important technologies that are significantly smaller than existing devices," Jeremy Levy of the University of Pittsburgh said in a statement.

Levy's team created its nanotech transistors using two ceramic crystal materials known as lanthanum aluminate and strontium titanate. When sandwiched together, these natural insulators conduct electricity as a positive charge is passed across them.