Nanocircuitry

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Nanocircuits are electrical circuits operating on the nanometer scale. This is well into the

transistors, interconnections, and architecture
, all fabricated on the nanometer scale.

Various approaches to nanocircuitry

A variety of proposals have been made to implement nanocircuitry in different forms. These include

carbon nanotubes in MOSFET designs. In an alternative approach,[4] Nanosys
uses solution based deposition and alignment processes to pattern pre-fabricated arrays of nanowires on a substrate to serve as a lateral channel of an FET. While not capable of the same scalability as single nanowire FETs, the use of pre-fabricated multiple nanowires for the channel increases reliability and reduces production costs since large volume printing processes may be used to deposit the nanowires at a lower temperature than conventional fabrication procedures. In addition, due to the lower temperature deposition a wider variety of materials such as polymers may be used as the carrier substrate for the transistors opening the door to flexible electronic applications such as electronic paper, bendable flat panel displays, and wide area solar cells.

Production methods

One of the most fundamental concepts to understanding nanocircuits is the formulation of

cosmic rays and electromagnetic interference than today's circuits.[6] As more transistors are packed onto a chip, phenomena such as stray signals on the chip, the need to dissipate the heat from so many closely packed devices, tunneling across insulation barriers due to the small scale, and fabrication difficulties will halt or severely slow progress.[7]
There will be a time when the cost of making circuits even smaller will be too much, and the speed of computers will reach a maximum. For this reason, many scientists believe that Moore’s Law will not hold forever and will soon reach a peak, since Moore's law is largely predicated on computational gains caused by improvements in micro-lithographic etching technologies.

In producing these nanocircuits, there are many aspects involved. The first part of their organization begins with transistors. As of right now, most electronics are using silicon-based transistors. Transistors are an integral part of circuits as they control the flow of electricity and transform weak electrical signals to strong ones. They also control electric current as they can turn it on off, or even amplify signals. Circuits now use silicon as a transistor because it can easily be switched between conducting and nonconducting states. However, in

Semiconductors
, which are part of transistors, are also being made of organic molecules in the nano state.

The second aspect of nanocircuit organization is interconnection. This involves logical and mathematical operations and the wires linking the transistors together that make this possible. In nanocircuits,

Nanowires have been made from carbon nanotubes for a few years. Until a few years ago, transistors and nanowires were put together to produce the circuit. However, scientists have been able to produce a nanowire with transistors in it. In 2004, Harvard University nanotech pioneer Charles Lieber and his team have made a nanowire—10,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper—that contains a string of transistors.[9]
Essentially, transistors and nanowires are already pre-wired so as to eliminate the difficult task of trying to connect transistors together with nanowires.

The last part of nanocircuit organization is architecture. This has been explained as the overall way the transistors are interconnected, so that the circuit can plug into a computer or other system and operate independently of the lower-level details.

logic gates and interconnections with the ability to reconfigure structures at several levels on a chip.[11]
The redundancy lets the circuit identify problems and reconfigure itself so the circuit can avoid more problems. It also allows for errors within the logic gate and still have it work properly without giving a wrong result.

Experimental breakthroughs and potential applications

Further information: Nanoelectronics and History of nanotechnology

In 1987, an

10 nm FinFET device.[13]

In 2005, Indian physicists Prabhakar Bandaru and Apparao M. Rao at

gate-all-around (GAA) FinFET technology.[19][20]

Normally, circuits use silicon-based transistors, but carbon nanotubes are intended to replace those. The transistor has two different branches that meet at a single point, hence giving it a Y shape. Current can flow throughout both branches and is controlled by a third branch that turns the voltage on or off. This new breakthrough can now allow for nanocircuits to hold completely to their name as they can be made entirely from nanotubes. Before this discovery, logic circuits used nanotubes, but needed metal gates to be able to control the flow of electric current.

Arguably the biggest potential application of nanocircuits deals with computers and electronics. Scientists and engineers are always looking to make computers faster. Some think in the nearer term, we could see hybrids of

organic molecules
, carbon nanotubes and nanowire semiconductors. The only thing left to do is find a way to eliminate the errors that come with such a small device and nanocircuits will become a way of all electronics. However, eventually there will be a limit as to how small nanocircuits can become and computers and electronics will reach their equilibrium speeds.

See also

References

  1. ^ Colinge, J., Multiple-gate SOI MOSFETs, Solid-State Electronics 48, 2004
  2. ^ U.S. patent 6,740,910
  3. ^ U.S. patent 6,566,704
  4. ^ U.S. patent 7,135,728
  5. ^ Stokes, Jon. ”Understanding Moore's Law","ars technica", 2003-02-20. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  6. ^ Patch, Kimberly. “Design handles iffy nanocircuits","TRN",2003-03-26. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  7. ^ Patch, retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  8. ^ Eds. Scientific American, Understanding Nanotechnology (New York: Warner Books, 2002) p.93.
  9. ^ Pescovitz, David.“Nanowires with built-in transistors Archived 2007-08-03 at the Wayback Machine","boing boing", 2004-07-01. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  10. ^ Eds. Scientific American, 93.
  11. ^ Patch, retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  12. ^ Davari, Bijan; Ting, Chung-Yu; Ahn, Kie Y.; Basavaiah, S.; Hu, Chao-Kun; Taur, Yuan; Wordeman, Matthew R.; Aboelfotoh, O.; Krusin-Elbaum, L.; Joshi, Rajiv V.; Polcari, Michael R. (1987). "Submicron Tungsten Gate MOSFET with 10 nm Gate Oxide". 1987 Symposium on VLSI Technology. Digest of Technical Papers: 61–62.
  13. ^ a b Tsu‐Jae King, Liu (June 11, 2012). "FinFET: History, Fundamentals and Future". University of California, Berkeley. Symposium on VLSI Technology Short Course. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  14. ISBN 9780387717517
    .
  15. S2CID 114072236
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  16. ^ "IEEE Andrew S. Grove Award Recipients". IEEE Andrew S. Grove Award. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  17. ^ "The Breakthrough Advantage for FPGAs with Tri-Gate Technology" (PDF). Intel. 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  18. ^ “Indians make the world’s tiniest transistor","SiliconIndia", 2005-09-06. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  19. ^ "Still Room at the Bottom (nanometer transistor developed by Yang-kyu Choi from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)", Nanoparticle News, 1 April 2006, archived from the original on 6 November 2012, retrieved 24 September 2019
  20. S2CID 26482358
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  21. ^ Eds. Scientific American, 93.
  22. ^ Eds. Scientific American, 94.
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