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Actually, the transistors mentioned in that article are still bigger than atoms. A single electron stores a 1 or 0, but that electron is still living in a pile

Actually, the transistors mentioned in that article are still bigger than atoms. A single electron stores a 1 or 0, but that electron is still living in a pile of atoms. (Source: I grew some of the crystals used to build those transistors in the article)

tempestn 12y ago
Good point. Still, the 1.5nm scale they mention is significantly smaller than anything we have now. Is it conceivable that we will see a whole new type of electronics on a subatomic scale in the future though? (Where the structure of a chip is not even made out of atoms, but entirely of subatomic particles?) I actually have an electrical engineering degree, but the couple of materials courses I took back in the early 2000s are starting to feel a bit dated!
- tedsanders 12y ago
  It's hard to rule anything out, but I think using non-atomic matter would be very difficult for a few reasons. (1) Subatomic particles are not necessarily smaller than atoms. Even though in the particle sense, an electron is infinitely small, in the wave sense, an electron can extend over a volume much larger than a single atom. So it's not necessarily the case that a subatomic particle like an electron is smaller than an atom. (Also, the positive charge of the nucleus actually helps shrink the electron's range. So adding positive particles can end up making the system smaller.) (2) If you want a transistor every 1.5 nm, then you probably need at least one particle every 1.5 nm. And the only way you can pack matter that densely is if it's charge neutral (a clump of singly charged particles would immediately disperse from electric repulsion). So you either need a combination of positive and negative particles (atoms), or neutral particles like photons/neutrons/neutrinos. The problem with neutral particles is that there's no long-range forces to keep them in whatever structure you design. Gravity is too weak at that scale, and electromagnetism has no effect because they are neutral. Perhaps photons could be used for computation, but without using atoms for mirrors/lenses/waveguides/etc it's hard for me to imagine how. TL;DR: Atoms are an efficient way to pack particles and preserve structure. It's hard to imagine doing it with a plasma or gas or something else.
  - keeperofdakeys 12y ago
    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/optical-circuits-single-photon-flips-transistor-switch/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/optical-circuits-s... There has been some (very early) work done with photon transistors. One of its cool applications will be fibre-optic hardware, to achieve much lower processing latency, hence faster data transit.

tempestn 12y ago

Good point. Still, the 1.5nm scale they mention is significantly smaller than anything we have now. Is it conceivable that we will see a whole new type of electronics on a subatomic scale in the future though? (Where the structure of a chip is not even made out of atoms, but entirely of subatomic particles?) I actually have an electrical engineering degree, but the couple of materials courses I took back in the early 2000s are starting to feel a bit dated!

tedsanders 12y ago
It's hard to rule anything out, but I think using non-atomic matter would be very difficult for a few reasons. (1) Subatomic particles are not necessarily smaller than atoms. Even though in the particle sense, an electron is infinitely small, in the wave sense, an electron can extend over a volume much larger than a single atom. So it's not necessarily the case that a subatomic particle like an electron is smaller than an atom. (Also, the positive charge of the nucleus actually helps shrink the electron's range. So adding positive particles can end up making the system smaller.) (2) If you want a transistor every 1.5 nm, then you probably need at least one particle every 1.5 nm. And the only way you can pack matter that densely is if it's charge neutral (a clump of singly charged particles would immediately disperse from electric repulsion). So you either need a combination of positive and negative particles (atoms), or neutral particles like photons/neutrons/neutrinos. The problem with neutral particles is that there's no long-range forces to keep them in whatever structure you design. Gravity is too weak at that scale, and electromagnetism has no effect because they are neutral. Perhaps photons could be used for computation, but without using atoms for mirrors/lenses/waveguides/etc it's hard for me to imagine how. TL;DR: Atoms are an efficient way to pack particles and preserve structure. It's hard to imagine doing it with a plasma or gas or something else.
- keeperofdakeys 12y ago
  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/optical-circuits-single-photon-flips-transistor-switch/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/optical-circuits-s... There has been some (very early) work done with photon transistors. One of its cool applications will be fibre-optic hardware, to achieve much lower processing latency, hence faster data transit.