Cutting Edge in Computation with Nanotechnology

One of the fields in which the nanotechnology is starting to shine is semiconductors.

Semiconductors are the special material which allows electricity to flow only under particular condition. For example, one type of semiconductor is activated, or let the electricity flow, when exposed to light.

The semiconductors are crucial parts in computers, because its the basis of calculation. Or in other words, the core function of computers are to calculate with on and off, and their combination called binary coding. (You can find a very comprehensive explanation of computation by transistor in this website.) Each of these binary on/off is done by transistors, and the collectives of transistors are called microchips. Since the semiconductors have the superb function of on/off, this is the most important materials of microchips, hense of computers.

The more transistors (minimal unit of computation) you have in one chip, the faster it can calculate (more calculation in a certain duration of time.) So, the technological challenges are to bring more transistors in a small space and to make each on/off functions faster.

Nanotechnology gives the opportunity to pursue these two technological challenges.

The first challenge is to make the transistor smaller, there are studies to use new nanotechnology based semiconductors.

For example, this patent is claiming that the formation of new semiconductor material with nanocrystals.

The second challenge is to make the conductivity or on/off operation faster. Some researchers take nanowires in quantum computing (link to the patent) to achieve it.

What I explained here is another application of nanotechnology in semiconductors and computing.