21-09-2008, 11:32 PM
Nanotechnology will help bring in strategically important driving force to future electronics. Intensive R & D on nanotechnology for chip applications is being driven from two distinct directions: 1) to sustain and enhance the great technology momentum established in decades by silicon ICs and 2) to explore revolutionary technologies in the ?beyond-silicon? era. Nanotechnology-enabled chip systems offer merits such as energy-efficiency, scalability, surface sensitivity, tunable properties, and low fabrication cost, all in tune with the future demands of electronics. Bottom-up approach, the core concept of nanotechnology, is the methodology that employs inexpensive chemistry to promote self-assembly of complex mesoscopic architectures. New material behavior at nano-scale offers great opportunities to design systems operating under different mechanisms. The next generation electronic chips, based on self-assembly of functional nanostructures, may helping enhancing chip system performance and density by orders of magnitude, deliver rich functionality, reduce power consumption considerably , and operate at molecular level. Nanotechnology potentially has a significant impact on several major applications such as computing, data storage, communication systems, bio/chemical sensing, energy conversion and lot more...