INTRODUCTION

Will silicon technology become obsolete in future like the value technology done about 50 years ago? Scientists and technologists working in anew field of electronics, known as molecular electronics is a relatively new field, which emerged as an important area of research only in the 1980â„¢s. It was through the efforts of late professor Carter of the U.S.A that the field was born.

Conventional electronics technology is much indebted to the integrated circuit (IC) technology. IC technology is one of the important aspects that brought about a revolution in electronics. With the gradual increased scale of integration, electronics age has passed through SSI (small scale integration), MSI (medium scale integration), LSI (large scale integration), and ULSI (ultra large scale integration). These may be respectively classified as integration technology with 1-12 gates, 12-30 gates, 30-300 gates, 300-10000 gates, and beyond 10000 gates on a single chip.

The density of IC technology is increasing in pace with Famour Mooreâ„¢s law of 1965. till date Mooreâ„¢s law about the doubling of the number of components in an I.C every year holds good. He wrote in his original paper entitled ËœCramming More Components Onto Integrated Circuit â„¢, that, the complexity for minimum component costs has increased at the rate of roughly a factor of 2 per year .certainly, over the short term, this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase. Over the longer term, the rate of increase is a bit more uncertain, although there is no reason to believe that it will not remain constant for at least ten more years.

It is now over 30 years since Moore talked of this so called technology-mantra. it is found that I.Câ„¢s are following his law and there is a prediction that Mooreâ„¢s law shall remain valid till 2010.the prediction was based on a survey of industries and is believed to be correct with research of properties of semiconductors and production processes. But beyond ULSI, a new technology may become competitive to semiconductor technology.

This new technology is known as Molecular electronics. Semiconductor integration beyond ULSI, through conventional electronic technology is facing problems with fundamental physical limitations like quantum effects, etc.

For a scaling technology beyond ULSI, prof.Forest Carter put forward a novel idea. In digital electronics, ˜YES˜ and ˜NO™ states are usually and respectively implemented and/or defined by ˜ON™ and ˜OFF™ conditions of a switching transistor. Prof. Carter postulated that instead using a transistor, a molecule (a single molecule or a small aggregate of molecule) might be used to represent the two states, namely YES & NO of digital electronics.

For e.g. one can use positive spin & negative spin of a molecule to represent respectively ËœYESâ„¢ & ËœNOâ„¢ states of binary logic. As in the new concept a molecule rather than a transistor is proposed to be used, the scaling technology may go to molecular scale. It is therefore defined as MSE (molecular scale electronics). MSE is far beyond the ULSI technology in terms of scaling.

In order to augment his postulation Prof. Carter conducted a number of international conferences on the subject. The outcome of these conferences has been to establish the field of molecular electronics.

However, as of today, molecular electronics is a broad field. The field is a result of a search for alternative materials, devices and applications of electronics. The field deals with organic materials.


The field is a challenge but not a replacement for inorganic electronics on immediate terms. Molecular electronics is a technological challenge to explore the possible application of organic materials, non-linear optics and biologically important materials in the field of electronics. Therefore hopes run high for realization of plastic electronic systems, all optical computers, and chemical or bio-computers with inbuilt thinking functions and bio-chips etc..

In the field of communication the role of optical soliton, which is a by product of non-linear optics, will be used in the implementation of a very haul (say 50,000 kilometers) with T bits/sec data rate networks. Economic solar cells are another existing promise of molecular electronics.

Molecular electronics, which is a high investment and high-risk field, is at the same time a highly promising one. High investment and risks are involved in the initial phases. Under commercial phases the cost molecular systems shall be cheaper. The prospects of molecular electronics depend on the successful interaction and coordination of scientists of diverse fields like computer, electronics, physics, chemistry, biology, material science, etc.

Historically the concept of molecule electronics dates back to the last century. The familiar e.g. is the use of organic materials in displays of watches and calculators. During the 1950, material scientists started working on organic solids as alternative semiconductors because of their attractive optical properties. Research the started in Soviet Union, Japan, U.K, France, Germany and U.S. But Forest Carter who conducted in 1980â„¢s a number of international conferences on the subject mainly initiated the interest in molecular electronics as a separate and special subject. Since then although the progress of molecular electronics has always been smooth, the prospects of the future have vastly improved.
(Download Full Report And Abstract)

Download [/size][/color][/url]