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Friday, February 20, 2009

Nanotechnolgy and Electronics: Atom-Sized Transistors ('Nanotronics'??)

"Scientists Make Advances On 'Nano' Electronics"
Reuters, via Wired (February 20, 2009)

"CHICAGO (Reuters) - Two U.S. teams have developed new materials that may pave the way for ever smaller, faster and more powerful electronics as current semiconductor technology begins to reach the limits of miniaturization.

"One team has made tiny transistors -- the building block of computer processors -- a fraction of the size of those used on advanced silicon chips.

"Another has made a film material capable of storing data from 250 DVDs onto a surface the size of a coin...."

I'll admit that this article is more appealing to people who like to read about "axial quadrupole nanostructures" than to those with less arcane interests.

However, if you've been following the science and technology behind the information technology we'll be using in the foreseeable future, I think you'll want to read about a team at the University of Pittsburgh and another from the Universities of Massachusetts Amherst and California Berkeley have been up to.

From the sounds of it, we're close to having computers, sensors, and memory devices with atom-sized transistors.

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