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Nanoelectronics relates to electron devices with one or more dimensions on the nanometer 10-9 m scale. The present silicon technology has produced a revolution in computing power, unprecedented availability of computation, communication, search engines, and more. Yet, Moore’s Law, describing the doubling of the number of transistors per chip (power per chip) every 1.5 years, clearly calls for a new paradigm, since the transistor cell, reaching the nanometer size domain, will contain too few atoms to function. The urgency for new paradigms in computing technology is suggested by the power consumption of laptop computers, dissipating nearly 100 watts per chip. (Silicon melts at 900 C.) Conventional chips, and computer systems, approach commodity status, and the related engineering, may be outsourced.
This "back-to-basics" "blue-sky" Physics course, with a firm prerequisite of PH2004, examines the challenge to silicon technology from miniaturization, and explores alternative (simple and intuitive) physical concepts needed to extend the advance of computing technology.
This course will clearly explain new physical concepts which dominate on the nanometer size scale. These include the wave nature of the electron (basic to the tunnel diode, the resonant tunnel diode ‘RTD’, and the ‘electron wave transistor’); the inherent spin magnetism of electrons (which is the basis for 100GB disk memory, the GMR read head, and ‘spintronics’); the Coulomb interaction between electrons (basis for the Single Electron Transistor, and the idea of quantum cellular automata ‘QCA ‘).
The wave nature of the electron is predicted by Schrodinger’s equation, which reliably describes atoms, molecules, the bands of semiconductors, and the Qubit of quantum computing. The wave nature of the electron in intermediate ‘mesoscopic’ size scales leads to the conductance quantum, the magnetic flux quantum, and to low-dissipation ‘rapid single flux quantum’ computation.
The experimental basis for nanoelectronics will be examined, emphasizing 1) the potential of the present lithographic and electron beam methods, molecular beam epitaxy, etc., of the hugely successful silicon technology 2) the array of methods based on the scanning tunneling and atomic force microscope for atomic- and molecular- assembly and, 3) the use of DNA and related biological elements, and carbon nanotubes, Buckyballs (C60 molecules); as building blocks and in self-assembly strategies.
During the semester students in pairs will give 20-minute presentations of a prepared topic during each class meeting; most students in the class will give a presentation every other week. The course grade will be determined from a term paper due at the end of classes, and on participation in the class. The term paper will be devoted to a research topic chosen in consultation with the instructor, and will be on the order of 20 typewritten pages.
The texts for this course are "Nanoelectronics and Information Technology", Ed. Rainer Waser (Wiley-VCH 2003) and "Nanophysics and Nanotechnology" by Edward L. Wolf (Wiley-VCH, 2004). The Waser book is an up-to-date, encyclopedic, resource on approaches to Nanoelectronics. The Wolf book is a comprehensive introduction to the basic concepts underlying present and future Nanoelectronics. Other reading and presentation materials will be provided.
Required Text: