Electronic Engineering 23

 

 

1. ______________________________

 

Nanoelectronics refers to the use of nanotechnology on electronic components, especially transistors. Although the term nanotechnology is generally defined as utilizing technology less than 100 nm in size, nanoelectronics often refers to transistor devices that are so small that inter-atomic interactions and quantum mechanical properties need to be studied extensively.

 

Nanoelectronics candidates include hybrid molecular/semiconductor electronics, one-dimensional nanotubes/nanowires, advanced molecular electronics.

 

Although all of these hold promise for the future, they are still under development and will most likely not be used for manufacturing any time soon.

 

2. ______________________________

 

Nanofabrication can be used to construct ultradense parallel arrays of nanowires, as an alternative to synthesizing nanowires individually. There exist two basic nanofabrication techniques: nanocircuitry and nanolithography.

 

Nanocircuits are electrical circuits on the scale ofnanometers, well into the quantum realm where quantum mechanical effects become very important. With circuits becoming smaller, there is an ability to fit more on a computer chip. This allows more complex functions using less power and at a faster speed. Nanocircuits are organized into three different parts: transistors, interconnections, and architecture, all dealt with on the nano scale.

 

Nanolithography refers to the fabrication ofnanometer-scale structures, meaning patterns with at least one lateral dimension between the size of an individual atom and approximately 100 nm. Nanolithography is used during the fabrication of leading-edge semiconductor integrated circuits or nanoelectromechanical systems. Nanolithography is a very active area of research in academia and in industry.

3. ______________________________

 

Molecular electronics is a branch of nanotechology dealing with the study and application of molecular building blocks for the electronic components fabrication. This includes both passive (e.g. resistive wires) and active (e.g. transistors) components. An interdisciplinary pursuit, molecular electronics spans physics, chemistry, and materials science.

 

This technology brings hope for truly atomic scale electronic systems in the future. One of the more promising applications of molecular electronics was