Researchers at the University of Toronto have created a semiconductor device that outperforms today’s conventional chips — and they made it simply by painting a liquid onto a piece of glass.

The finding, which represents the first time a so-called “wet” semiconductor device has bested traditional, more costly grown-crystal semiconductor devices, is reported in the July 13 issue of the journal Nature.

The research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada through its Idea to Innovation (I2I) Program, the Canada Foundation for Innovation; the Province of Ontario through the Ontario Centres of Excellence and the Canada Research Chairs program.