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UK Scientists Make Transistor One Atom Long, 10 Atoms Wide
Bibek Paudel points out a story about the latest step forward in the development of nano-scale circuits. Researchers from the University of Manchester have created some of the smallest transistors ever, measuring only one atom by 10 atoms. The transistors are made out of graphene, which has the potential to replace silicon in the never-ending hunt for smaller computer technology. From NewScientist:
"There are other kinds of prototype transistors in this size range. But they usually need supercooling using liquid gas, says Novoselov. The new graphene devices work at room temperature. Such prototypes are typically made by building one atom at a time, or wiring up individual molecules. Those approaches are complex and impractical, Novoselov says. By contrast, the graphene transistors were made in the same way that silicon devices are, by etching them out of larger pieces of material. 'That's their big advantage,' he says."
This is a good step in getting faster and better computers... it is too bad it'll take about 10 years before it is anywhere near affordable! (think electric car technology)
One question...
How do you know it's one atom long and ten wide? maybe it's ten atoms long and one wide?
Shouldn't that be 10 Atoms long, One Atom wide?
Summation 2
That's one atom thick, not one atom wide.
I submitted this in story form yesterday but also in recent news, Glasgow scientists have made a tiny switch that would make huge leaps in memory storage:
Scientists at the University of Galsgow have claimed a breakthrough that enables them to store 500,000 gigabytes squeezed onto one square inch making way for some hilarious storage for things like cell phones and iPods. The scientists working on it divulged, "We have been able to assemble a functional nanocluster that incorporates two electron donating groups, and position them precisely 0.32 nm apart so that they can form a totally new type of molecular switching device. This is unprecedented and provides a route to produce new a molecule-based switch that can be easily manipulated using an electric field. By taking these nano-scale clusters, just a nanometer in size, and placing them onto a gold or carbon, we can control the switching ability. Not only is this a new type of switchable molecule, but by grafting the molecule on to metal (gold) or carbon means that we can potentially bridge the gap between traditional semiconductor devices and components for nanoscale plastic electronics. The key advantage of the molecule sized switch is information / transistor density in traditional semi-conductors. Molecule sized switches would lead to increasing data storage to say 4 Petabits per square inch. This breakthrough shows conceptually that this is possible (showing the bulk effect) but we are yet to solve the fabrication and addressing problems. The fact these switches work on carbon means that they could be embedded in plastic chips so silicon is not needed and the system becomes much more flexible both physically and technologically. Since these switches are little balls of metal oxide they are made of similar stuff to normal semi-conductors but are much easier to manipulate as discrete molecular units." You can read more about it in Nature's Nanotechnology publication. In related news, researchers have claimed to harness terahertz radiation using circuits.
Another advancement in nanotechnology, thought I would post it here since it's probably not going to be used.
My work here is dung.
"which has the potential to replace silicon". Talk is cheap. Show me the stuff. Seriously, that phrase has been around for decades...
Seriously, sometimes I feel the line between science and magic gets fuzzy. A transistor one atom by 10 atoms? That's on such a small scale that is so hard to comprehend that it'd almost be easier to hand-wave it and just say "it's magic."
Pah! I discovered Miniaturization two years ago in Civilization II.
A quick search said nothing about power consumption. If these transistors are really small, but leaky as hell with subthreshold leakage then what's the point? The chip might have to manage heat/power in such a way that there's a large portion of the die dedicated to it.
Also, what "atom" size are we talking about here?
So... is a liquid gas anything like a solid liquid? Or perhaps a case of flatulence gone wrong?
In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're not.
Of course, this being the UK, we'll give the technology away or sell the company that owns it to an overseas one for 50p.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
* temperatures above absolute zero that are economically achievable.
This technology (and other similar developments using graphene/carbon) seems very promising. And I'm glad they could solve one part of the fabrication process using steps that are already in use (etching).
However, there remains another issue when using these devices to construct circuits: patterning. Right now, that's generally done with lithography, and though several ideas are being worked on, we simply cannot yet use lithography to pattern devices anywhere near this small.
Don't get me wrong: it's good that such technology is out there waiting for us once the patterning tech catches up. But until that happens, this stuff will likely remain in the lab.
Kythe
Not only did they etch this out of a larger piece of material, but even the larger piece of material was too small to see with the naked eye.
Of course, someday they'll find a material where a single atom is, like, an inch wide, and then we won't be impressed by atoms anymore...
I realize this is trite, but shouldn't that be one molecule long and 10 molecules wide? Seeing as how I don't remember graphene on the periodic table... I suppose that since they are counting individual molecules and atoms, it's not a huge stretch to think that they might have these molecules lined up in such a way that they have a 1 atom by 10 atom geometry with the extra atoms in the molecule going into the 3rd dimension.
Not trying to criticize too much, I'm just a stickler for units:)
At this scale, the transistor could very easily be destroyed by a cosmic ray. Interesting experiment, but I have a hard time believing that this development can find many practical applications.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
If you want something to worry about, worry about power usage and heat dissapation.
Car Analogy:
Say a car A is 10 feet bumper to bumper, and 6 feet side to side. We say that car A is 10 feet long and 6 feet wide.
Now say car B is only 3 feet bumper to bumper (Steve Urkel's car?) and 6 feet wide. Would you say this car is 6 feet "long" just because its width happens to be the longest dimension? IMO, we would call this car "3 feet long and 6 feet wide."
New webcomic updated on Sundays: HERE
They're in the UK, so I believe the proper term for them is "boffins".
Last time I checked, the internal temperature of my processors were at least twice as high as room temperature.
call me when they make one that's 1x4x9.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Now if they can scale it up to a factor of a few billion/trillion, and mass produce it, they'll replace silicon.... *Holds breath* . .. ... *THUD!*
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Tell me, if you saw an animal (say horse or even pig) sprout wings and fly would you think it was magic?
You you immediately conclude that there is a mystical force outside your ability to comprehend that made that animal grow wings?
Or would you conclude that the animal was genetically engineered or that it was actually a robot of some sort or even that you imagined it?
My point is simply this, the idea that advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic ONLY applies to pre-industrial/technological societies.
This is a little sad, like losing some innocence but I suppose that is the price of society growing up...I can only hope that we are in the early-mid teen years right now and that we will "grow out" of this phase.
I dropped it on the carpet.
I cannot imagine an application that a single mini transistor is required, where a big one can't do the trick. Will kids have transistor radios dropped into their ears?
Do you even know what a Beowulf cluster is?
which is totally what she said
Not the autobot kind either. There are currently a kind of step up transformer in many cars now. Ever use/see a 110 volt outlet/power point in a car? That is a converter from 12V CD to 110V AC. Why can't there be a step up up DC transformer? A little DC current goes in and a lot more comes out the other side which characters the main batteries. This exists on land for AC, granted the size is huge, but first make a working model, then shrink it to a more portable size.
Link in parent is malicious. Do not click.
Of course there's nothing to see! It's 1 x 10 atoms, you can't see that with your bare eyes!
The first Mars colony ship, a joint effort between the US and the UK space agencies, crashed into the sun last week. Investigators have concluded that the navigation system failed due a unit conversion error between US and UK computer component manufacturing. The US manufactured their components with transistors that were 10 atoms long and one atom wide, while the Europeans components used one atom long and 10 atoms wide transistors.
Next thing you know we're going to be needing small atoms to keep Moore's Law humming along.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Nanotech is great stuff. The further we advance in nano-tech is better the chanses we don't mess up the timeline because we can go back in time acedently drop our future PDA's and the technology is so small there is no chance in hell that people would be able to figure out the tech and make their own. Thus saving the timeline. Timetravelers rejoice, long are the days of the spinning wheel bicicle.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
To get a real feel for it, you need to put it in different terms, namely: How many of these will fit in the Library of Congress?
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
And I've built a quantum interface 10 chars long and three wide and can operate in just three dimensions;
I'm currently working on the psychology of GSVs;
I'll need to add a fourth dimension to get volume, but it works.
Do you mind, your karma has just run over my dogma.
These things are a bitch to solder.
Have gnu, will travel.
That's the PICO scale! Looks like nanotechnology has some competition