With features of silicon chips shrinking to single-digit nanometers,measurement tools long used to monitor chip production are approaching their limits. Factor in the growing complexity of chip design, and it's easy to understand why Intel is working with the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) on fresh measurement capabilities. Today, and researchers from NIST and Intel reported success using an X-ray scattering technique to accurately measure features on a silicon chip to within fractions of a nanometer,or approximately the width of a single silicon atom. Read approximately it here: http://nist.gov/mml/nist-and-intel-glean-critical-dimensions-with-x-rays.cfm
Source: intel.com