Nanotechnology

Q: What is the biggest challenge facing the nanoelectronics industry?

A: Most experts agree that the current complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology used in microprocessors, microcontrollers and other digital logic circuits could reach the end of its miniaturization progression by 2025 – hitting physical, technological and economic limits.

CMOS technology is also used for a wide variety of analog circuits such as image sensors, data converters and highly integrated transceivers for many types of communication.

There is a worldwide race under way by scientists to create novel computing devices and molecular or graphite switches to replace the CMOS transistor as a logic switch by 2020. These devices should show significant advantages over CMOS transistors in power, performance and density, and should enable the semiconductor industry to extend the historical cost and performance trends for information technology.

Scientists also are working on solving the “placement problem,” which means getting tiny carbon nanotubes in the right spot and doing it a million times on an integrated circuit chip. Currently, getting these tubes reliably where researchers want them is problematic. If nanotubes are not in the right position, experts say, the devices they are attempting to create won’t work properly.