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Harnessing the Single Electron
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21908 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1993 |
3,075 Words |
| Author
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Hank Hogan
Hank Hogan is a science writer in Austin, Texas. |
If there is one thing that has characterized the electronics industry, it has been the drive to get small, to do more in less space. In the process, computers have shrunk from the room-sized monstrosities of 50 years ago to the postage stamp-sized ones now available. Today, the long journey from devices too big to be carried to ones too tiny to be seen is approaching its logical conclusion: electronic devices whose operation depends upon a single electron.
This ultimate miniaturization may be possible only through the use of quantum effect electronics, an approach that makes a fundamental break with existing technology and takes advantage of quantum mechanical phenomena such as the wavelike nature of electrons. The devices that result from this technology defy common sense in their characteristics and size.
One example of this new approach is found in Fujitsu's research center in Japan, where investigators are building memory chips that put quantum effects to work. Doing this allows the number of transistors within each memory cell to be cut by 80 percent. At IBM's Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley, scientists used a scanning tunneling microscope to switch current on or off by moving a single atom. As yet, this ultimate electronic switch is only a laboratory demonstration, but it is thousands of times smaller than existing switches.
Work in quantum effect electronics may produce incredibly small and powerful computers as well as whole new types of electronic devices with unusual and useful capabilities: very low power consumption, extremely fast switching times, and the ability to store more than just a 1 or a 0.
Quantizing electronics
According to Mark Reed, an electrical engineering professor at Yale University, quantum effect electronics has the possibility for a huge payoff. This potential payoff is one reason that such major U.S. electronics firms as IBM, Texas Instruments, and Motorola are working in the field. The European electronics giant Philips also funds research in this area. In Japan, Fujitsu, Matsushita, Hitachi, and others have a large, 10-year effort coordinated through the government agency MITI.
Another reason for the interest in this approach has to do with the electronics industry's push to build ever-smaller, and hence faster, devices. With any given technology, there's a limit to how small it is practical to
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