Coming up NANO era....

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Researchers Assemble Building Blocks of Nanocomputers

In a flurry of new research, scientists have begun to assemble the tiniest electronic
elements into simple logic circuits—the building blocks of the electronic mazes that
power computers. Three independent groups of scientists have worked on this and come
up with fascinating results.
Chemist Charles Lieber and co-workers at Harvard University created simple logic
circuits incorporating up to six transistors by crisscrossing nanometer-wide wires of
silicon and gallium-nitride, each junction of which forms a transistor. This technique
works by catalyzing the growth of the crystal wires from solutions of each material with
the assistance of a laser.
Physicist Adrian Bachtold and colleagues at Delft University of Technology in the
Netherlands carved aluminum strips from a layer of the metal and deposited carbon
nanotubes on top. They then attached strips of gold to both ends of each nanotube,
creating a transistor, and linked up to three such devices in various ways to make circuits
that would execute simple logical functions: flipping a signal from off to on or vice versa,
turning two off signals into an on, storing a unit of information or creating an oscillating
signal.
Physicist Jan Hendrik Schön, with help from other researchers at Bell Laboratories, has
refined a technique he recently described for making transistors out of a layer of small
carbon molecules. Diluting these transistor molecules with insulating carbon chains,
Schön found that just one was enough to turn a signal on or off, making a rudimentary
circuit element.
However scientists still have to reduce the complete circuit to molecular size. But the fact
that several groups have assembled basic circuits from molecule-scale parts is an
indicator of how far molecular electronics and nanotechnology have come and is very
encouraging for the future.
Quantum Computers
A quantum computer - a new kind of computer far more powerful than any that currently
exist - could be made today say Thaddeus Ladd of Stanford University, Kohei Itoh of
Keio University in Japan, and their co-workers. They have sketched a blueprint for a
silicon quantum computer that could be built using current fabrication and measurement
techniques.
Quantum and conventional computers encode, store and manipulate information as
sequences of binary digits, or bits, denoted as 1s and 0s. In a normal computer, each bit is
a switch, which can be either 'on' or 'off'.
In a quantum computer, switches can be on, off or in a superposition of states - on and off
at the same time. These extra configurations mean that quantum bits, or qubits, can
encode more information than classical switches.
Single Electron Memory
The single-electron memory is the latest development in the field of microelectronics
called ‘single electronics’, in which electrons are shunted around circuits one by one like
strollers through a maze. The electrons pass through turnstiles, hop between resting
places, and as they go on their way they flip switches and perform ‘logic operations’ just
like the electrical currents in ordinary computers. The difference is that the currents are
minute so very little power is consumed. And because the electrons pass through the
system one at a time, the electrical current is ‘granular’ -- like a trickle of sand from an
hourglass, rather than a stream of liquid gushing through a lock gate.
This low-power, low-heat ‘granular’ electronics would manipulate information, not in the
form of electrical pulses representing the binary digits ‘1’ and ‘0’ that encode information
in today’s computers, but instead by using single electrons to represent a ‘bit’ of
information. That is to say, the presence of an electron in a channel would signify a ‘1’,
the absence a ‘0’.
IBM’s Molecular Computer
IBM researchers have built and operated the world's smallest working computer
circuits in which individual molecules move across an atomic surface like toppling
dominoes.
The new "molecule cascade" technique makes the digital-logic elements some 260,000
times smaller than those used in today's most advanced semiconductor chips.
The circuits were made by creating a precise pattern of carbon monoxide molecules on a
copper surface. Moving a single molecule initiates a cascade of molecule motions, just as
toppling a single domino can cause a large pattern to fall in sequence. The scientists then
designed and created tiny structures that demonstrated the fundamental digital-logic OR
and AND functions, data storage and retrieval, and the "wiring" necessary to connect
them into functioning computing circuitry.
The most complex circuit they built -- a 12 x 17-nanometer three-input sorter -- is so
small that 190 billion could fit atop a standard pencil-top eraser.
IBM's molecule cascade works because carbon monoxide molecules can be arranged on a
copper surface in an energetically meta-stable configuration that can be triggered to
cascade into a lower energy configuration, just as with toppling dominoes. The meta-
stability is due to the weak repulsion between carbon monoxide molecules placed only
one lattice spacing apart. What enables computation is that each cascade carries a single
bit of information. By analogy, a toppled domino can be thought of as a logical "1," and
an untoppled domino can be thought of as a logical "0." Similarly, a cascaded or non-
cascaded molecular array can represent a logical "1" or "0," respectively.
Since there is no reset mechanism, these molecule cascades can only perform a
calculation once.
 Carbon Nanotubes
One of the biggest discoveries to have aided the progress of electronics at the nano scale
is that of carbon nanotubes. These are tiny tubular structures composed of a single layer
of carbon atoms. Discovered in 1991 by Sumio Iijima of NEC Corporation, carbon
nanotubes are an exotic variation of common graphite. The tubular structure imparts a
number of mechanical and electronic properties that include super strength, combined
with low weight, stability, flexibility, good heat conductance, large surface area and a
host of intriguing electronic properties.
Carbon nanotubes are descendants of buckminsterfullerene, or "buckyball," the soccer-
ball-shape molecule of 60 carbon atoms. It has been discovered that if a row of hexagons
going down the tube's long axis were straight, the tube would behave as a metal and
conduct electricity. If a line of hexagons formed a helix, however, the tube would act as a
semiconductor. This gives rise to a wide variety of electronic applications in which the
tubes can be used.
(To understand this completely refer our previous article on nano's like Nanotechnology
)
Carbon Nanotubes Could Lengthen Battery Life
Carbon nanotubes could lengthen the life of batteries, according to new research. Recent
findings suggest that the diminutive tubes can hold twice as much energy as graphite, the
form of carbon currently used as an electrode in many rechargeable lithium batteries.
Conventional graphite electrodes can reversibly store one lithium ion for every six carbon
atoms. By experiment it has been found that the tiny straws of carbon nanotubes manage
to reversibly store one charged ion for every three carbon atoms. In explanation, the
scientists note that the tubes' open ends facilitate the diffusion of lithium atoms into their
interiors.
Carbon Nanotubes Could Serve as Ultrafast Oscillators
Carbon nanotubes are extremely small, measuring a few billionths of a meter in width.
According to scientists these straws nestled inside one another with the inner set of tubes
sliding in and out a billion times a second could constitute a gigahertz oscillator.
Scientists from the University of California have come up with the conclusion that if the
inner core were pulled out of such a tube, it would not only retract back into the center of
the tube, but it would also continue right out the other end. Nearly negligible friction
between the tubes would enable a breakneck gigahertz oscillation frequency. And shorter
tubes could move at even greater speeds.
However researchers have not yet figured out how exactly to excite the oscillator and
how to couple it with the rest of the nanoscopic device. The actual implementation of this
coupling represents another challenge in development.
Researchers Fashion the First Single Molecule Circuit
 nano ckt.
In a remarkable feat of engineering, researchers at IBM have wired up a working
computer circuit within a single carbon nanotube. Building on earlier work, Phaedon
Avouris and colleagues turned the nanotube—essentially a sheet of carbon atoms rolled
into a supertiny straw—into a voltage inverter, or NOT gate, one of the three fundamental
types of logic gates on which all computers rely. FIG below shows a view of the circuit
that was fabricated
Of importance, the current in the carbon nanotube NOT gate comes out stronger than it
goes in—a necessary criterion for any circuit design. And because this gain is by as much
as a factor of 1.6, researchers believe that more complex single-nanotube circuits will be
possible.
Nanotube 'Peapods' Exhibit Surprising Electronic Properties

peapods
In yet another small step toward building nanoscale devices, scientists have determined
that nanotube peapods—minute straws of carbon filled with spherical carbon molecules
known as buckyballs—have tunable electronic properties. Recent findings
suggest that stuffing the straws provide greater control over the electronic states of
single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT).
Using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope, Ali Yazdani of the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and colleagues imaged the physical structure of
individual peapods (FIG ). They mapped the motion of electrons within the pipes and, as
Yazdani explains, showed "that an ordered array of encapsulated molecules can be used
to engineer electron motion inside nanotubes in a predictable way." Though the harbored
buckyballs modify the electronic properties of the nanotube, the atomic structure of the
straw remains unchanged
The researchers also utilized the microscope to move the buckyballs, which allowed them
to compare the same section of a SWNT when it was filled and unfilled. "The
encapsulated balls have a much stronger effect on the electronic structure of the tube than
we had expected," says study co-author Eugene Mele of the University of Pennsylvania.
Indeed, the authors conclude that their calculation not only shows how a peapod's
electronic properties differ from those of its constituent parts, "it also provides possible
design rules for proposing hybrid structures having a specific type of electronic
functionality."
In addition to those listed some possible uses of carbon nanotubes in the future are:

• Field emitter for flat panel displays.

• Cellular phone signal amplifier.
• Ion storage for batteries.
• Materials strengthener.

In the future, these tubes could well replace silicon. Thus carbon nanotubes are of great
importance in the field of nanoelectronics.
One nano step toward efficient LED lighting

Engineers at Kopin Corp. (Taunton, MA) are using nanotechnology (patent pending as
NanoPockets) to produce "CyberLites" — blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) smaller than
a grain of sand . The new LEDs are as bright as 3.3V commercially available devices, yet
can be driven by <2.9V (using 20mA of current) and still have 100 mC brightness. In
addition, CyberLites have achieved ESD resistance >4000V compared to ~2000V
resistance with commercially available LEDs; high ESD resistance is critical for
industrial applications.
This work was done in cooperation with Jagdish Narayan of North Carolina State
University and director of the NSF Center of Advanced Materials and Smart Structures.
FIG 5 shows a ‘CyberLite’ on a US dime.NanoPockets is based on Kopin's patented
wafer engineering process, already being used by the company for displays and HBT
transistors; this process significantly reduces the number of natural atomic level defects
when different semiconductor materials are combined. CyberLites are fabricated on
gallium nitride grown — via organometallic chemical vapor deposition — on low-cost
aluminum oxide. The process provides confinements ("NanoPockets") for production of
light away from defects. The nanostructures, which are naturally formed as a result of
internal strains, are spaced less than the separation of material defects, such as
dislocations.
A blue CyberLite can be combined with yellow phosphor to create a white LED. Blue
and white CyberLites are ideal for compact battery-powered portable light-using devices,
such as wireless phones, games, camcorders, cameras and laptops.
Nano Solar Cells

nano solar cell :fraunhofer.

Paul Alivisatos, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, has an idea in which
he aims to use nanotechnology to produce a photovoltaic material that can be spread like
plastic wrap or paint.
His approach begins with electrically conductive polymers. To improve the efficiency,
Alivisatos is adding a new ingredient to the polymer: nanorods, bar-shaped
semiconducting inorganic crystals measuring just seven nanometers by 60 nanometers.
The result is a cheap and flexible material that could provide the same kind of efficiency
achieved with silicon solar cells. The prototype solar cells he has made so far consist of
sheets of a nanorod-polymer composite just 200 nanometers thick. Thin layers of an
electrode sandwich the composite sheets. When sunlight hits the sheets, they absorb
photons, exciting electrons in the polymer and the nanorods, which make up 90 percent
of the composite. The result is a useful current that is carried away by the electrodes. FIG
6 shows the hybrid nanocrystal-polymer solar cell which is made by blending CdSe
nanocrystals with P3HT, a conducting polymer, to form a 200nm thick film sandwiched
between an aluminum top contact and a transparent bottom contact.
By adjusting the diameter of the nanorods, Alivisatos' lab has tuned their cells' absorption
spectrum to have as large an overlap with the solar energy spectrum as possible, enabling
them to collect more light than typical plastic solar cells. This tuning will also enable the
fabrication of nanocrystal / polymer/ nanoparticle combinations that absorb different
wavelengths of light more efficiently. Multiple layers of varied composition can then be
stacked on top of one another to form a more efficient cell. To further boost performance
Alivisatos and his collaborators have switched to a new nanorod material, cadmium
telluride, which absorbs more sunlight than cadmium selenide, the material they used
initially. The scientists are also aligning the nanorods in branching assemblages that
conduct electrons more efficiently than do randomly mixed nanorods.The nanorod solar
cells could be rolled out, ink-jet printed, or even painted onto surfaces, so a billboard on a
bus could be a solar collector.
Solar cells based on inorganic nanorods combine the processing advantages of small
molecules and organic polymers with the performance advantages of bulk inorganic
materials. Because of their solubility in various common solvents, nanorods can be used
to make semiconductors using low cost processing techniques such as spin coating, blade
casting, and screen printing on substrates of various flexibility, including plastic. They do
not require a clean room, a vacuum chamber, or high temperatures for fabrication and the
electrode and nanorod/polymer layers of the solar cell can be applied in separate coats for
ease of production.
Drawback of working at the nano scale
The main drawback of nanoelectronics is that it is prone to damage due to external
electric discharge. On a dry winter day, walking on a new carpet can generate a
whopping 35,000-volt discharge. This high voltage does not harm us because the amount
of charge that flows is puny. Still, it is large enough to destroy sensitive micro-electronic
components. Modern microelectronics is extremely sensitive and can be ruined by the
pulse of electricity of an electrostatic discharge (ESD) that can occur from mere handling
of a chip.
ESD is an issue not only for finished products but also during their manufacture, from
wafer fabrication to packaging to the assembly of complete systems. Each step has its
own electrostatic hazards. The main cause of failure of electronics when ESD occurs is
the heat generated by the electric current of the discharge, which can be enough to melt
the material. Damage occurs even without melting. The properties of diodes and
transistors are determined by the doping of the semiconductor: carefully introduced
impurity atoms, or dopants, produce regions having specific electronic properties.
Excessive heating can allow dopants to migrate, ruining the precise pattern of regions that
is essential for the device to function properly.
Processes known as electro-current constriction and thermal runaway make matters worse
by concentrating the heating in a hot spot: when one location of a semiconductor heats up
significantly, its resistance falls, so that more of the current flows through the hottest
place, heating it even more.
The solution to protect these delicate transistors is to include ESD protection circuits on
the chip, to divert currents from discharges away from the transistors toward the ground.
Since 1995 "smart" circuits known as ESD power clamps have been used to discharge the
ESD current through the final stage, from the power rail to the ground. For example,
some power clamps use a simple frequency-dependent filter to discriminate an ESD pulse
from normal signals. Others detect the excess voltage of the discharge. Once the device
senses the pulse, a signal powered by the pulse turns on robust transistor circuits to
discharge the current safely to the ground.
David V. Cronin of Polaroid invented a mechanical solution to protect individual diodes
when they are being handled: When the diode is not in its socket, conductive metal
springs short the electrodes to the diode's metal casing (). Any ESD on the electrodes will
flow to the casing instead of to the diode's semiconductor. When the laser diode is
inserted into its socket, the metal spring disengages.
In years to come, traditional methods of ESD protection for semiconductors may not be
acceptable with smaller, faster devices. Alternatively, designers might use new materials
to make intrinsically sturdier transistors and rely on off-chip devices to prevent ESD
pulses from reaching the nanocircuitry.
:Conclusion:
It appears that the future of electronics is ‘nano’ i.e. electronics at the nano scale could
revolutionise the way the world works. Microelectronics has been miniaturized to such an
extent that it now works at the molecular level to make use of fundamental properties,
phenomena, and processes. Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS)--the smaller
cousins of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)--are paving the way for a revolution
in applications such as sensors, medical diagnostics, displays and data storage. Current
integrated circuits have minimum dimensions of the order of 0.35 microns. Based on
current rates of development, people have projected that around the year 2005 companies
will be manufacturing in high volume integrated circuits that have dimensions around 0.1
micron.
Nanoelectronics will be a strategic branch of science and engineering for the current
century, one that will fundamentally restructure the technologies currently used in
computation , medicine, energy production, communication, and education.
As the twenty-first century unfolds, the impact of nanoelectronics on our society is
expected to be as significant as that of the silicon chip, antibiotics, man made polymers or
integrated circuits on the twentieth century.