21-05-2010, 11:24 PM
Nanocell Logic Gates For Molecular Computing.DOC (Size: 2 MB / Downloads: 194)
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Molecular electronics seeks to build computational systems, both memory and logic, wherein individual or small collections of molecules serve as discrete device components. Potential advantages of molecular electronic systems could be many-fold including reducing the complexity and cost of current integrated circuit fabrication technologies, reducing heat generation by using only a few electrons per bit of information, and providing a route to meet the ever-continuing demand for miniaturization. While molecules are approximately one million times smaller in area than their present-day solid state counterparts, this small size brings with it a new set of problems. In order to take advantage of the ultrasmall size of molecules, one ideally needs an interconnect technology that: 1) scales from the molecular dimensions; 2) can be structured to permit the formation of the molecular equivalent of large-scale diverse modular logic blocks as found in very large-scale interconnect (VLSI) architectures; and 3) can be selectively connected to mesoscopically (100 nm scale) defined input