English for Specific Purposes

24 Electronic Engineering

proposed by the IBM researcher Ari Aviram and the theoretical chemist Mark Ratner in their 1974 and 1988 papers Molecules for Memory, Logic and Amplification.

This is one of many possible ways in which a molecular level diode/transistor might be synthesized by organic chemistry. A model system was proposed with a spiro-carbon structure giving a molecular diode about half a nanometre across which could be connected by polythiophene molecular wires.

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Nanoelectronics keeps the promise of making computer processors more powerful. A number of approaches are currently being researched, including new forms of nanolithography, as well as the use of nanomaterials such as nanowires or small molecules in place of traditional CMOS components. Field effect transistors have been made using both semiconducting carbon nanotubes and heterostructured semiconductor nanowires.

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Research is ongoing to use nanowires and other nanostructured materials with the hope to create cheaper and more efficient solar cells that are possible with conventional planar silicon solar cells.

There is also research into energy production for devices that would operate in vivo, called bio-nano generators. A bio-nano generator is a nanoscale electrochemical device, like a galvanic cell, but drawing power from blood glucose in a living body, much the same as how the body generates energy from food.

The average person's body could, theoretically, generate 100 watts of electricity using a bio-nano generator (if all food were converted to electricity). The generated electricity could power devices embedded in the body (such as pacemakers), or sugar-fed nanorobots. Much of the research done on bio-nano generators is still experimental, with Panasonic's Nanotechnology Research Laboratory among those at the forefront.

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There is great interest in constructing nanoelectronic devices that could detect the concentrations of biomolecules in real time for use as medical diagnostics, thus falling into the category of nanomedicine. A parallel line of research seeks to create nanoelectronic devices which could interact with single cells for use in basic biological research. These devices are called nanosensors. Such miniaturization on nanoelectronics towards in vivo proteomic sensing should enable new approaches for health monitoring, surveillance, and defense technology.