X-Message-Number: 17884
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 23:47:50 -0800
From: Olaf Henny <>
Subject: How big is a pin head?
References: <>

Does anybody have anything more concise on this?

Either that or maybe someone can tell me if this is a glass head
pin or a steel head pin, which accommodates these 10 million
molecules.  Do they fit on only the relatively flat portion of
the pinhead (they might slide off the steeper slopy parts) or do
they have to cover the pinhead all around, even the underside, to
cram all of them on the pinhead? :) - - just kidding!

Quote:
Scientists invent transistor made of one molecule

November 8, 2001 Posted: 2241 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- When two Bell Labs scientists invented the
transistor in 1947, it was as tall as the face of a wristwatch.
Now, another Bell team has made a transistor from a single
molecule -- small enough to fit about 10 million on the head of a
pin.

"It may become the cornerstone of a new era," Bell Labs vice
president Federico Capasso said.

Scientists predict that silicon transistors, the bedrock element
for current computers, are expected to be made as small as
physically possible in the second decade of the century. Organic
nanotransistors represent a new step for computing that extends
beyond that barrier, and can be used in computers on paper,
clothes and everywhere else.

"You might think about flexible electronics, some things in which
silicon cannot do," said physicist Hendrik Schon of the Bell
three-member team.

The invention by Schon and chemists Zhenan Bao and Hong Meng
threatens to make Moore's Law -- the axiom named after an Intel
Corp. co-founder who predicted that the number of transistors on
a piece of silicon would double roughly every 18 months -- a
footnote in history.

"I think it will show more or less ... the ultimate limit for
Moore's Law," Schon said.

The breakthrough was published Thursday on the Web site of the
journal Science.

Stanford University professor David Goldhaber-Gordon called the
invention "really remarkable."

"It really looks for all the world like a standard silicon
transistor, and in some ways even has better parameters,"
Goldhaber-Gordon said.

Smaller transistors generally translate to speedier devices.
Intel and other chipmakers squeeze millions of transistors on a
single microprocessor to power computers, and the techniques
needed do to so are very expensive.

Schon said the molecular transistor is cheap to make, and can be
done in an ordinary lab rather than the ultra-sanitary "clean
room" now used by chipmakers.

Schon's team used "conjugated molecules" made out of carbon,
hydrogen and sulfur. The solution is poured from a beaker onto
gold electrodes, and the transistors form by themselves.
Biological sensors

The transistor, which Schon called the "ultimate limit for
miniaturization," faces several years of testing and improvements
before it can be used in products. Schon and his team also need
to figure out how it works.

"There were some pleasant surprises in the observed experimental
results," Schon said. "Now we have to work on getting a better
understanding of what's going on this scale."

Scientists are taking great strides in organic computing. The
last leap was also made by Schon's team, just a month ago, when
they created a transistor out of a cluster of molecules.

In August, IBM researchers created a simple logic circuit on a
carbon nanotube, a single-molecule strand of carbon.

Goldhaber-Gordon said researchers have too much invested in
silicon to see it replaced by molecular cousins anytime soon, but
suggested the new device's small size would be useful for
biological sensors.

"Forty to 50 years of development plus the GNP of a decent sized
country will get you quite a lot," Goldhaber-Gordon said of
silicon research.

One can go smaller than molecules, as any high school chemistry
student knows. While Schon said he is skeptical of theories
concerning atomic and subatomic quantum transistors, he won't go
so far as to doubt the ingenuity of future inventors.

"Some people have ideas about making chains of atoms and then
maybe moving the atoms to change the conductance. But I don't see
how you can amplify signals with that," Schon said. "I don't
know, maybe some people will come up with clever ideas."
End of quote

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