A Pocket Dictionary of Tomorrow’s Electronics_Franz_IPC-TLP2021.pdf

A Pocket Dictionary of
Tomorrow’s Electronics
IPCThought Leaders Program
Roger L. Franz
TE Connectivity
2021

Why this dictionary?
Evan a small fraction of what tomorrow may hold in the vast world of
electronics, computing, and photonics fills volumes.
This concise “pocket dictionary” is intended to provide some practical
take-aways about important terminology you may already know, or need to
know more about, in the coming years.

Dictionary
A book giving information on particular subjects or on a particular class of words,
names, or facts, usually arranged alphabetically.
Tomorrow
1. The day following today. 2. A future period or time.
Electronics
1. The science dealing with the development and application of devices and systems
involving the flow of electrons in a vacuum, in gaseous media, and in semiconductors
(used with a singular verb).
2. Electronic devices, circuits, or systems developed through electronics (used with a
plural verb).
www.dictionary.com
What is it about?

From hindsight “what has been happening around here”
We gain insight “what is happening right now”
And then foresight “what most likely to happen next.”
- INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP FOR DEVICES AND SYSTEMS 2020, p. 7
Acknowledgement
To the scientists, engineers, technicians, business visionaries, and
organizations like IPC who are driving the advancement of this
marvelous industry to new levels of achievement.

Contents
3D printing
III-V Semiconductor
5G
Active Optical Cables
Additive Manufacturing
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Carbon Nanotubes
Cloud
Color Centers
Cryogenic Computing
Cyber-physical systems
DC to Light
Electronic skin
Energy harvesting
Fog computing
Giant piezoelectricity
Graphene
Internet ofThings (IoT)
Ion transistor
Iontronics
Memristor
Metamaterials
Molecular gates
Molecular motors
Nanomaterial
Neuromorphic computing
OrganicTransistors
Phase Change Memory
Quantum Communication
Quantum Computing
Quantum Dots
Quantum Information Science
Quantum Internet
Qubit
Skin electronics
Spintronics
Straintronics
Superconductors
Terahertz Frequencies
Trapped Ions
Twistronics
Wireless charging
From here you are on your own->
Each entry links to its own page.
Each page links back to Contents.
Or you may click each page
to advance to the next.

3D printing
Direct manufacturing, less waste
Printing three-dimensional objects provides the ability to quickly make new kinds of parts with less tooling
and less waste than traditional methods. While not new, the technology continues to expand into different
applications and specialized methods, including 3D circuit boards. Some of processes available now include:
• SLA (Stereo Lithography Apparatus)
• DLP (Digital Light Processing)
• MJP (Multi-Jet Printing)
• SLS (Selective Laser Sintering
• FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling)
• CLIP (Continuous Liquid Interface Production)
• SDL (Selective Deposition Lamination)
• EBM (Electron Beam Melting
• LDS (Laser Direct Structuring)
Information source: Various, including https://www.3dprintingbusiness.directory/
Image: G. Chen et. al., Realization of Rapid Large-Size 3D Printing Based on Full-Color Powder-Based 3DP
Technique.” Molecules. 2020 May; 25(9): 2037. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. T
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Back to contents

III-V Semiconductors
Wide bandgap, high frequency devices
“Three-Five” refers to one element from periodic table group formerly numbered III (nitrogen,
phosphorous, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth) and one from groupV (boron, aluminum, gallium, indium,
and tellurium. Such semiconductor devices are already showing their capabilities In high
frequency radio and optical applications while widespread research and development continues.
" III–V semiconductors (such as InP, InAs, GaAs, GaN, and InSb) find wide applications in
high-performance optoelectronic devices owing to their superior electronic properties including
high electron mobility, direct band gap, and low exciton binding energy.
Importantly, the absence of toxic heavy metals such as cadmium and lead makes III–V nanocrystals a
compelling alternative material platform…”
Z. Liu et. al., Shape control in the synthesis of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, in Anisotropic Particle
Assemblies: Synthesis, Assembly, Modeling, and Applications, N. Wu, et. al, Eds., Elsevier, 2018.
Image: © 2020 MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Note: In the old Roman numeral numbering system, silicon was group IV
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5G
Digital communications continue to evolve
5G stands for the Fifth Generation of digital mobile communications, following the first generation, 1G,
of cellular telephony which was based on analog technology. 5G is the latest in a series of faster,
more capable, wider bandwidth, digital mobile communications standards conforming to technical
specifications of the international 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project ). The impact and benefits
of 5G, all enabled by electronics devices and moving beyond individual communications to the Internet
of Things (IoT) will continue to be huge.
https://www.3gpp.org/
Graphic: ©3GPP 2021
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Active Optical Cables
Computers say hello to light
• Traditional wiring with Direct Attach Cables (DAC) uses copper wire and passive electrical connectors.
• AOC connections incorporate active circuitry at each end to convert between
electrical and optical signals. Electronics and optics are merging to create new capabilities.
"Within the data centers, most are using fiber optic active optical cables (AOC) that take electrical data
input, convert it to optical data with lasers, transmit it over fiber and then convert it to electrical output
at the other end of the cable."
-INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP FOR DEVICES AND SYSTEMS 2020 OUTSIDE SYSTEM CONNECTIVITY, p. 2.
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Additive Manufacturing
Now! For dimensions of all sizes
Already used for mechanical 3D parts, additive manufacturing technology is now
being developed at the micro- and nanomaterial level. This is one example of
such developments.
“We expect that the throughput, resolution, and pattern flexibility of
FP-TPL [femtosecond projection two-photon lithography] makes it an
attractive technology to scale up the fabrication of functional micro- and
nanostructures such as mechanical and optical metamaterials, micro-optics,
bioscaffolds, electrochemical interfaces, and flexible electronics –
technology that may play a large role in fields such as electric transportation,
healthcare, clean energy and water, computing, and telecommunications."
S. Saha et. al. "Scalable submicrometer additive manufacturing."
Science 366(6461):105, Oct. 4, 2019.
Back to cntents
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AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Not as new as you may ‘think’
AI is rapidly developing even though not completely new. For example, the
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) (formerly the
American Association for Artificial Intelligence) was founded in 1979.
AI represents the future of the integration of intelligent electronics everywhere.
AI considered to be of four basic types:
1. Reactive machines: not learned experience but situational, i.e. playing games.
2. Limited memory: some information from the past is retained for use, but then erased.
3. Theory of mind: psychologically speaking, the ability to influence the machine’s own
behavior in ways similar to how humans use thoughts, feelings and expectations.
4. Self-awareness: “While we are probably far from creating machines that are self-aware,
we should focus our efforts toward understanding memory, learning and the ability to base
decisions on past experiences. This is an important step to understand human intelligence
on its own.”
© AAAI.org
https://www.govtech.com/computing/understanding-the-four-types-
of-artificial-intelligence.html
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Carbon Nanotubes
For carbon nanotube transistors, etc.
These nanomaterials made of pure carbon can be single walled, as shown
in the illustration, or nested within each other as multiwalled nanotubes.
Excellent electrical conductors, they are candidates for a wide variety of
applications, from batteries to micro- and nanoelectronic devices, sensors,
electrical contacts, and light weight cabling.
This paper on CNT transistors is but one of many thousands of research reports
on possible uses for this new material.
Q.Cao et. al., "Carbon nanotube transistors scaled to a 40-nanometer footprint."
Science 356(6345):1368, June 30, 2017.
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Cloud
Computing above, below and in between
“The term cloud refers to the engineering of data center scale computing
operations—compute, storage, networking engineered for scale and for
continuous resource redeployment and reconfiguration via APIs. Whether
they are operated publicly or privately, they offer on-demand, as-a-service
consumption model. While they had their origins in web service; media
streaming, shopping and commerce; they are increasingly broadening their
applications base to big data for social networking, recommendations, and
other purposes; precision medicine; training of AI systems, and high-
performance scientific computation for science and industry.”
INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP FOR DEVICES AND SYSTEMS 2020 EDITION SYSTEMS AND
ARCHITECTURES, p. 9
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Color Centers
Lighting the way to quantum systems
“Quantum Photonics Incorporating Color Centers in Silicon Carbide and Diamond.” M. Radulaski et. al.,
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1806/1806.06955.pdf
Image: Creative commons, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Line-shape.png
“Quantum photonics plays a crucial role in the development of novel communication and sensing
technologies. Color centers hosted in silicon carbide and diamond offer single photon emission and
long coherence spins that can be scalably implemented in quantum networks. Color centers in silicon
carbide and diamond are promising solid state light emitters and spin-qubits with applications in
quantum communications and sensing. Their integration with photonic devices is key to the
development of arbitrarily complex quantum systems.”
“The future of this line of research includes all-optical spin manipulation and an expansion of
spin-photon interfaces to on-chip quantum simulators.”
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Cryogenic Computing
Hot numbers come in from the cold
“A key challenge towards large-scale quantum computation is the interconnect complexity.
In current solid-state qubit implementations, an important interconnect bottleneck appears
between the quantum chip in a dilution refrigerator and the room-temperature electronics.
Advanced lithography supports the fabrication of both control electronics and qubits in silicon
using technology compatible with complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS).
When the electronics are designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures, they can ultimately be
integrated with the qubits on the same die or package, overcoming the ‘wiring bottleneck’…
These results open up the way towards a fully integrated, scalable silicon-based quantum
computer.”
“CMOS-based cryogenic control of silicon quantum circuits.” X. Xue, et al.
Nature volume 593, pages 205–210 (2021).
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Cyber-physical Systems
Computers at work everywhere doing real things
“Cyber-physical systems (CPS) provide real-time control for physical plants. Vehicles and
industrial systems are examples of CPS….Market drivers include automotive and aerospace
vehicles, autonomous vehicles, medical systems and implantable devices, and industrial
control.” (1)
“Typically, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) involve various interconnected systems, which can
monitor and manipulate real objects and processes. They are closely related to Internet of
Things (IoT) systems, except that CPS focuses on the interaction between physical,
networking and computation processes. Their integration with IoT led to a new CPS
aspect, the Internet of Cyber-Physical Things (IoCPT). The fast and significant evolution of
CPS affects various aspects in people’s way of life and enables a wider range of services
and applications including e-Health, smart homes, e-Commerce, etc. (2)
INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP FOR DEVICES AND SYSTEMS 2020 EDITION SYSTEMS AND ARCHITECTURES, p. 1 & 16
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DC to Light
From static to photons
You will probably not find a formal definition of this phrase, which is a mildly humorous way of
referring to a dreamer’s idea of really wide bandwidth. But one of the themes in this dictionary is
that Light will be the New Radio. (see Terahertz Frequencies).
It is a general technology trend for electronics to move into higher and higher frequencies.
For example, historical AM radio was in the kilohertz (1000 Hz) to low megahertz (million Hz) region.
FM radio operated in the tens to 100’s of megahertz.
XM satellite radio is in the 2000 Mhz region (2 GhZ or billion Hz)
Similar increases in frequency hence speed, occurred in microcomputer clock speeds, etc..
Beyond audio and radio, the electromagnetic spectrum goes through microwaves, infrared, visible
light, ultraviolet, and on up to X-rays and gamma rays.
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Electronic skin
It’s all on you
"Electronic skins (e-skins) are flexible electronic devices that emulate properties
of human skin such as high stretchability and toughness, perception of stimuli,
and self-healing. These devices can serve as an alternative to natural human skin
or as a human-machine interface."
X. Liu, "The more and less of electronic-skin sensors." Science 370(6519):10. Nov 20, 2020.
Artwork: S.W. Kim et. al., “A Triple-Mode Flexible E-Skin Sensor Interface for Multi-Purpose
Wearable Applications.”, Sensors (Basel) 2017 Dec 29;18(1):78.
© 2017 by the authors, Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
•. 2017 Dec 29;18(1):78
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Energy harvesting
Little energy sources are all around us
“Energy harvesting is the capture and conversion
of small amounts of readily available energy in the
environment into usable electrical energy.”
• Kinetic: Wind/Motion/Vibration
• Light/Solar
• Electromagnetic
• Thermal
Amos Kingatua, All About Circuits, June 23, 2016
The How and Why of Energy Harvesting for
Low-Power Applications - Technical Articles
(allaboutcircuits.com)
Image: “Magnetic and Electric Energy Harvesting Technologies in Power Grids: A Review.”
F. Yang et. al., Sensors (Basel), 2020 Mar 9;20(5):1496. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
.
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Fog computing
To the cloud but then back home again
"As IoE was used for a broader range of applications, some
applications had unacceptably slow performance due to the latency of
communicating with the cloud. To overcome this latency limitation,
some applications added local storage and processing close to the IoT
devices and network, which is referred to as fog computing."
INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP FOR DEVICES AND SYSTEMS 2020 OUTSIDE SYSTEM CONNECTIVITY, p. 1.
Artwork: R. Basir et. al. “Fog Computing Enabling Industrial Internet of Things:
State-of-the-Art and Research Challenges. Sensors (Basel) 2019 Nov 5;19(21):4807.
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Giant piezoelectricity
Creating a buzz with new materials
Piezoelectric components that convert mechanical to electrical energy, and vice versa,
are not new. Well known ceramics like lead zirconate titanate (PZT) have been used for decades.
Now, using new materials, and those that are not toxic like lead, construction of such devices
is being realized at the thin film and even nanometer scale, which “...shows great potential
for improving composition control to obtain high-performance piezoelectric thin films."
H. Liu, "Giant piezoelectricity in oxide thin films with nanopillar structure." Science
369(6502):292, July 17, 2020.
Artwork: H. Tian, et. al., “Origin of giant piezoelectric effect in lead-free
K1-xNaxTa1-yNbyO3 single crystals. Sci Rep. 2016 May 10;6:25637.
© 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License
•. 2016 ay 10;6:25637
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Graphene
Hexagons of carbon with personality
“This one-atom-thick fabric of carbon uniquely combines extreme mechanical strength,
exceptionally high electronic and thermal conductivities, impermeability to gases, as well as
many other supreme properties, all of which make it highly attractive for numerous
applications…Graphene is the first two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystal available to us. A large
number of its material parameters—such as mechanical stiffness, strength and elasticity, very
high electrical and thermal conductivity, and many others—are supreme. These properties
suggest that graphene could replace other materials in existing applications. However, that all
these extreme properties are combined in one material means that graphene could also
enable several disruptive technologies. The combination of transparency, conductivity
and elasticity will find use in flexible electronics, whereas transparency, impermeability and
conductivity will find application in transparent protective coatings and barrier films; and the
list of such combinations is continuously growing.”
K. S. Novoselov et. al., “A roadmap for graphene.” Nature volume 490, pages192–200 (2012)
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Ion Transistor
Electrical or chemical? Yes.
In a nano-world where electronics merges with motion, precise electrical control at even
the molecular level will be made possible. Like an electrical transistor that can control the flow
of electrons, and an electromagnetically operated solenoid can control the flow of a valve in a pipe
with flowing liquid, such integrated control will become possible at the molecular level and used
in numerous automation and robotics applications, including biological-like functionality.
“Biological ion channels with atomic-scale selectivity filters not only allow extremely fast and
precisely selective permeation of alkali metal ions but also behave as life’s transistors, with the
ability to gate their on-off responses to external stimuli so as to sustain important biological
activities .”
Y. Xue, "Atomic-scale ion transistor with ultrahigh density." Science 372(6542):601, Apr. 30, 2021
Graphic: S-K Cho et. al., “Highly Sensitive and Selective Sodium Ion Sensor Based on Silicon Nanowire Dual Gate
Field-Effect Transistor.” Sensors (Basel), 2021 Jun 19;21(12):4213. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Open
access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY).
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Iontronics
Bio-inspired chemical electronics
“Electrochemical and photochemical processes provide a powerful approach for on-demand
generation of ion concentration gradients locally at solid-liquid interfaces. Spatially
organized in individual way electrodes provide a particular pattern of proton distribution in
solution. It opens perspectives to iontronics which is a bioinspired approach to signaling,
information processing, and storing by spatial and temporal distribution of ions.” (1)
“Similar to how biological systems operate with ions (atoms or molecules with net positive
or negative charge), … nanofluidic channels can show nonlinear conduction and function as
memory-effect transistors." (2)
(1) N. Ryzhkov et. al, ”Localization of Ion Concentration Gradients for Logic Operation.” Front Chem.
2019; 7: 419.
(2) Y. Hou, "Bioinspired nanofluidic iontronics: Electrolytes in planar nanochannels are predicted to
function as nanofluidic Memristors.” Science 373(6555): 628,Aug. 6, 2021.
Image (1) © 2019 Ryzhkov, Nesterov, Mamchik, Yurchenko and Skorb. Creative Commons Attribution
License (CC BY).
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IoT (Internet ofThings) and
IoE (Internet of Everything)
Doing much more than surfing the web
“The Internet of Everything (IoE) is continuing to expand in applications that demand higher
volumes of higher performance communication. The IoE was initially defined as a wide range
of Internet of Things (IoT) devices communicating with cloud computing that store data and
which was analyzed with applications and actions communicated. As IoE was used for a
broader range of applications, some applications had unacceptably slow performance due to
the latency of communicating with the cloud. To overcome this latency limitation, some
applications added local storage and processing close to the IoT devices and network, which
is referred to as fog computing.”
THE INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP FOR DEVICES AND SYSTEMS: OUTSIDE SYSTEM CONNECTIVITY 2020
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IoT Edge
Enhancing the Cloud
“An IoT edge (IoTe) device is a wireless device with computation, sensing, communication,
and possibly storage. The device may include one or more CPUs, memory, non-volatile
storage, communication, security, and power management. It may be line powered,
battery powered or utilize energy harvesting. Market drivers for IoT include the following:
smart cities; smart homes and buildings; medical devices; health and lifestyle;
manufacturing and logistics, and agriculture.”
THE INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP FOR DEVICES AND SYSTEMS: OUTSIDE SYSTEM CONNECTIVITY 2020, p. 14.
Graphic: M. Merenda et. al. “Edge Machine Learning for AI-Enabled IoT Devices: A Review.” Sensors
(Basel). 2020 May; 20(9): 2533. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Creative
Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Memristor
The fourth ‘passive’ component
Back to contents
Graphic: Parcly Taxel, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>,
Via Wikimedia Commons
"Conceptually, the memristor is a nonlinear device that finally completes all of the basic
relationships between voltage, current, charge, and flux. Simply put, if resistors operate based
on voltage and current, inductors on flux and current, and capacitors on voltage and charge,
what about flux and charge? That’s the missing relationship completed by the memristor.“
The original paper was published in 1971: “Memristor—The Missing Circuit Element.” By Dr. L. Chua,
IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory 18(5):507-519.
“Passive Components Get Active.” R. Franz, Electronic Design, Dec. 5, 2016.
http://electronicdesign.com/passives/passive-components-get-active

Metamaterials
Negative refractive index antennas, invisibility cloaks
“While constantly searching for new materials in nature, another approach is to craft
novel composite materials beyond the naturally available properties. This is accomplished
by directly designing the arrangement of the ‘atoms’ into a desired architecture or
geometry, instead of chemical compositions in natural materials. This new type of artificial
material is called metamaterial—a new frontier of science, which first emerged in the field
of optics and photonics. In the past two decades, we have witnessed an explosion of the
meta-concept, bending the fundamental rules of light. This consequently realized the full
exploitation of dielectric and metallic properties in the permittivity–permeability plane,
leading to unique optical effects, such as negative optical refractive index and superlenses.
These intriguing light–matter interaction behaviors, enabled by metamaterials, provide the
further prospect of new functional photonic technology.”
“Metamaterials: artificial materials beyond nature.” National Science Review, Volume 5, Issue 2, March 2018, Page 131,
Published: 20 February 2018
Artwork: Y. Kivshar, “All-dielectric meta-optics and non-linear nanophotonics.”, National Science Review, Volume 5, Issue 2,
March 2018, Pages 144–158, open access distributed under Creative Commons.
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Molecular gates
Opening electronics to chemistry and biology
Molecules that respond to input stimulations to produce detectable outputs can be
exploited to mimic Boolean logic operators and reproduce basic arithmetic functions. (1)
“Molecule and biomolecule computing, particularly based on DNA/RNA-molecules and enzyme
systems have recently received high attention and have been studied extensively. While being
a sub-area of unconventional computing, the (bio)molecule computing systems are mostly
considered for low-scale information processing expecting their applications in wearable and
implantable bioelectronics…” (2)
(1) “A Reconfigurable, Dual-Output INHIBIT and IMPLICATION Molecular Logic Gate.”
L.A. Trifoi et. al. Front Chem. 8: 470, June 5, 2020.
(2) “Reconfigurable Implication and Inhibition Boolean logic gates based on NAD+-dependent
enzymes: Application to signal-controlled biofuel cells and molecule release.” P. Bollella et. al.,
Electrochem. Sci. Adv. 2021.
Image: (1) Copyright © 2020 the authors. Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
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Molecular Motors
Moving in baby steps
Electrically controlled motion can be enabled at the nanoscale, using
"…moving molecules that resemble their biomolecular counterparts but
use simpler components."
“We monitored the individual 0.7-nanometer steps of a single molecular
hopper as it moved in an electric field along a track in a nanopore
controlled by a chemical ratchet.”
Y. Qing, et. al., "Directional control of a processive molecular hopper."
Science 361(6405): 908, Aug. 31, 2018.
Image: “How molecular motors work - insights from the molecular machinist's toolbox:
the Nobel prize in Chemistry 2016.”, R. D. Astumian, Chem. Sci. 2016 Nov 21.
© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
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Nanomaterial
A small but powerful future
Standard ISO/TS 80004-1:2015(en) Nanotechnologies — Vocabulary — Part 1: Core terms
Graphic: Courtesy of TheGrapheneCouncil.org
One particular group of nanomaterials made of carbon is
electrically conductive and can be tailored to a wide variety of
electronic applications including conductors, sensors and
other devices.
“The prefix 'nano-' specifically means a measure of 10−9 units,
and the nature of this unit is determined by the word that
follows.” (i.e. -material, -object, -scale, -structure, -particle,
etc.) as measured in units of meters.
“Applications of nanotechnologies are expected to impact
virtually every aspect of life and enable dramatic advances in
communication, health, manufacturing, materials and
knowledge-based technologies.”
Clockwise from top left:
• graphene
• graphene multilayer sheets
• carbon Fullerene (“buckyball”);
• carbon nanotube
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Neuromorphic
Computing
Computers more like brains
"Neuromorphic and brain-inspired computing that draws
inspiration from biological systems but, much as with
aerodynamics, utilizes materials and energies not available
to their biological analogs." (1)
(1) INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP FOR DEVICES AND SYSTEMS 2020 EDITION SYSTEMS AND ARCHITECTURES, p. 5.
(2) Rao et. al, "Homogenous neuromorphic hardware: Bifunctional ferroelectric transistors enable collocation of
memory and processing". Science 373(6561): 1310, Sept. 17, 2021.
Image: I. Boybat et. al., “Neuromorphic computing with multi-memristive synapses.” Nat. Commun. 2018 Jun 28;9(1):2514.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
"Digital hardware of the von Neumann architecture, based on complimentary metal-oxide
semiconductor (CMOS) systems, substantially limits operation speed and energy efficiency as it
shuttles data constantly between information processing and memory units. Neuromorphing
computing architecture is built on dense nonvolatile memory (NVM) crossbar arrays and aims to
perform calculations in situ at the exact sites where data are stored to tackle the bottleneck" (2)
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Organic Transistors
Up and coming alternative to Silicon
Organic is defined as: based on compounds primarily made of the element Carbon.
See also: Nanomaterials and Graphene
"Organic thin-film transistor have driven the development in low-cost, large-area electronics,
including emerging application areas such as wearable technologies. Theis applications require
devices that can bend and stretch without affecting their electrical behavior.”
C. Jiang, "Printed subthreshold organic transistors operating at a high gain and ultralow power."
Science 363(6248): 719, Feb. 15, 2019
Image: A.V. Marquez et.al., “Organic Electrochemical Transistors (OECTs) Toward Flexible
and Wearable Bioelectronics.” Molecules. 2020 Nov; 25(22): 5288. Copyright © 2020
the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
.
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Phase Change Memory
Smart materials that remember
A new approach for memory devices, for example, using "…thin phase-change layers interspaced with
nanoscale diffusion barriers. The resulting phase-change electronic memories have ultralow noise, drift
and high endurance and may have wide-ranging applications beyond traditional data storage.” (1)
“Phase-change memory utilizing amorphous-to-crystalline phase-change processes for reset-to-set
operation as a nonvolatile memory has been recently commercialized as a storage class memory.” (2)
(1) B. Gholipour, "The promise of phase-change materials." Science 366(6462): 186, Oct. 11, 2019.
(2) E-S Lee et. al., “Quasicrystalline phase-change memory.” Sci Rep. 2020; 10:13673.
Image (2) © The Author(s) 2020 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Quantum Communication
Using quantum physics to untangle entanglement
“To communicate quantum information over long distances, researchers exploit a property
called “quantum entanglement.” When two particles are entangled, their properties are
inseparably linked, no matter how much distance lies between them. Knowing the properties
of one particle in an entangled pair gives all the information one needs to understand the state
of its partner — without having to observe it directly…
"Advances in quantum information science have the potential to revolutionize information
technologies, including quantum computing, quantum communications and quantum sensing
Q-NEXT, a DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Center
Image: I.B. Djordjevic, “On Global Quantum Communication Networking.”
Entropy (Basel). 2020 Aug; 22(8): 831. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
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Quantum Computing
Faster. Exponentially faster.
“The promise of quantum computers is that certain computational tasks might be executed
exponentially faster on a quantum processor than on a classical processor. A fundamental
challenge is to build a high-fidelity processor capable of running quantum algorithms in an
exponentially large computational space.”
F. Arute, et. al, “Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor..”
Nature 574(7779):505-510, Oct. 23, 2019.
Image: V. Kendon, “Quantum computing using continuous-time evolution.”
Interface Focus. 2020 Dec 6; 10(6): 20190143. Copyright © 2020 The Author.
Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Quantum Dots
Semiconductor nanoparticles with quantum mechanical
optical and electrical properties. Stay tuned.
"…nanomaterials with widely tunable light absorption, bright emission of pure colors,
control over electronic transport, and a wide tuning of chemical and physical functions….
Their applications span energy harvesting, illumination, displays, cameras, sensos,
communication and information technology, biology and medicine..."
F. P. Garcia et. al, “Semiconductor quantum dots: Technological progress and future challenges." Science
373(6555):640 (Aug. 6, 2021.).
Image: H.B. Jalali et. al., “Biocompatible Quantum Funnels for Neural Photostimulation.”
© 2019 American Chemical Society. ACS AuthorChoice License permits copying and redistribution of the
article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes.
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Quantum Information Science
Bits today, Qubits tomorrow
“Quantum Information Science represents a foundational shift in our understanding of physics
and information science, with the potential for dramatic technology impact.” (1)
"The nature of information technology is governed by the rules of the universe itself, known as
quantum mechanics. This realization helped establish the field of QIS. Presently, new technologies
that harness unique quantum properties of coherence, entanglement, and measurement are
emerging from fundamental advances in QIS. Developing practical, real-world applications for these
technologies that benefit other scientists and end-users in a wide range of disciplines is now an
important frontier for quantum information scientists and technologists." (2)
(1) Dr. Charles Tahan, Assistant Director for QIS, Office of Science and Technology Policy.
www.quantum.gov
(2) QUANTUM FRONTIERS: REPORT ON COMMUNITY INPUT TO THE NATION'S STRATEGY F
OR QUANTUM INFORMATION SCIENCE, Oct. 2020.
https://www.quantum.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/QuantumFrontiers.pdf
Image: H. Eneriz, “Degree of Quantumness in Quantum Synchronization.” © The Author 2019.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Quantum Internet
Going the distance relativistically
H.J. Kimble, “The quantum internet.” Nature 2008 Jun 19;453(7198):1023-30.
Image: L. Gyongyosi et. al., “Opportunistic Entanglement Distribution for the Quantum Internet
Sci Rep. 2019; 9: 2219. © The Author(s) 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
“Quantum networks provide opportunities and challenges across a range of intellectual and
technical frontiers, including quantum computation, communication and metrology.The
realization of quantum networks composed of many nodes and channels requires new scientific
capabilities for generating and characterizing quantum coherence and entanglement. Fundamental
to this endeavour are quantum interconnects, which convert quantum states from one physical
system to those of another in a reversible manner. Such quantum connectivity in networks can be
achieved by the optical interactions of single photons and atoms, allowing the distribution of
entanglement across the network and the teleportation of quantum states between nodes.”
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Qubits
Move over bits of binary digits…
Quantum Bits are coming
“Classical computers switch transistors either on or off to symbolize data as ones and zeroes. In
contrast, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits that, because of the bizarre nature of
quantum physics, can be in a state of superposition where they simultaneously act as both 1 and 0.
The superpositions that qubits can adopt let them each help perform two calculations at once.
If two qubits are quantum-mechanically linked, or entangled, they can help perform four calculations
simultaneously; three qubits, eight calculations; and so on.:
“…scientists have now developed a microchip that can generate “qudits” that can each assume 10 or
more states, potentially opening up a new way to creating incredibly powerful quantum computers…”
C.Q. Choi, “Qudits: The Real Future of Quantum Computing? Qudits can have 10 or more quantum
states simultaneously compared to just two for qubits.” IEEE Spectrum, 28 JUN 2017.
Image: G. Mooney et. al., “Entanglement in a 20-Qubit Superconducting Quantum Computer.”
Sci Rep. 2019; 9: 2219. ©The Author(s) 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
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Skin Electronics
Smart, sensible wear
"Skin electronics are a set of skin-mounted devices whose mechanical properties
are comparable to those of human skin. They have been deployed in various
applications such as biomedical devices, human-computer interfaces, and virtual or
augmented reality devices."
D. Jung et. al., “Highly conductive and elastic nanomembrane for skin electronics."
Science 373(6558):1022, Aug. 27, 2021.
Image: B. Piro et. al., “Recent Advances in Skin Chemical Sensors.” Sensors (Basel). 2
019 Oct; 19(20): 4376. © 2019 by the authors. Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Spintronics
Using an electron’s spin, charge and magnetic moment
“A huge revolution has been made in the field of information storage since the discovery of the
giant magnetoresistance effect and the development of spintronics in the past of 30 years. Organic
semiconductors (OSCs) composed of light elements have weak spin–orbit coupling (SOC) interaction
and thus long spin relaxation time… there is a great potential of excellent spin transport characteristic
of OSCs at room temperature…In addition, the abundant functionalities of OSCs and interfacial properties
between ferromagnetic electrodes and OSCs have further increased the application modes of OSCs in
spintronics, which have attracted wide attention in the areas of chemistry, materials, and physics…
Spin valve is one of the most typical devices for spin transport study, which is composed of a
spin-transport layer sandwiched between two ferromagnetic electrodes.”
Y. Zhang et. al., “The Application of Organic Semiconductor Materials in Spintronics.” Front Chem. 2020; 8: 589207.
Image: © 2020 Zhang, Guo, Zhu and Su, Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
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Straintronics
Relax and let new materials do the work
"By creating kinks in the structure of graphene, researchers
made the nanomaterial behave like a transistor…" (1)
Straintronics is a branch of nanoelectronics in which the connection between different physical
phenomena is carried out by means of mechanical deformation of a thin-film nanostructure. The
deformation in the layers of a thin-film nanostructure under the influence of external control fields
makes changes in the electrical, magnetic and mechanical parameters of materials. It makes it
possible to implement a fundamentally new generation of microelectronic devices and devices that
combine various physical effects. Magnetic straintronics is based on the effects of direct and reverse
magnetostriction in thin films made of different materials and alloys that are included in the
composition of multilayer nanostructures. (2)
(1) N.G. Vowles, "Graphene "Nano-Origami" Creates Tiny Microchips.” Tech Briefs, Aug. 2021, p. 24
(2) D. Zhukov et. al., “Investigation of Multilayer Nanostructures of Magnetic Straintronics Based on the
Anisotropic Magnetoresistive Effect.” Sensors (Basel) 2021 Aug 27;21(17):5785.
Image © 2021 by the authors, Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Superconductors
Perfect conductors. No resistance. No, we still don’t have any.
“Since the beginning of the 18th century, when electrical conduction was discovered, solids have been
classified as conductors (metals) and insulators. Nevertheless, such a classification, which is very useful
for practical purposes, was found to be enormously difficult to reformulate in terms of theory, so that the
problem has not been satisfactorily solved yet… the concepts of a metal and an insulator are confined to
the absolute zero temperature ..however, the absolute zero temperature. ..does not exist at all, such a
definition bears a somewhat metaphysical character.” (1)
“Scientists have created a mystery material that seems to conduct electricity without any resistance at
temperatures of up to about 15 °C. That’s a new record for superconductivity, a phenomenon usually
associated with very cold temperatures… The superconductor has one serious limitation, however:
it survives only under extremely high pressures, approaching those at the centre of Earth, meaning that
it will not have any immediate practical applications. Still, physicists hope it could pave the way for the
development of zero-resistance materials that can function at lower pressures.” (2)
(1) J. Mares et. al., “Selected topics related to the transport and superconductivity in
boron-doped diamond.” Sci Technol Adv Mater. 2008 Dec; 9(4): 044101.
(2) D. Castelvecchi, “First room-temperature superconductor excites — and baffles — scientists.
A compound of hydrogen, carbon and sulfur has broken a symbolic barrier — but its high pressure
conditions make it difficult to analyse.” Nature 586, 349 (2020)
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Terahertz Frequencies
Where electronics meets optics
1 terahertz = THz = 1012 Hz = 1 trillion cycles per second
Terahertz frequencies of interest are commonly defined to lie between 0.3 THz (300 GHz) and 3 THz,
between microwaves and infrared light. These frequencies cannot be handled by conventional
electronics that work with radio waves and microwaves. (1)
Other sources extend this frequency range.
“Science and technologies based on terahertz frequency electromagnetic radiation (100 GHz–30 THz)
have developed rapidly over the last 30 years. For most of the 20th Century, terahertz radiation, then
referred to as sub-millimeter wave or far-infrared radiation, was mainly utilized by astronomers and some
spectroscopists. Following the development of laser based terahertz time-domain spectroscopy in the
1980s and 1990s the field of THz science and technology expanded rapidly, to the extent that it now
touches many areas from fundamental science to ‘real world’ applications. For example THz radiation is
being used to optimize materials for new solar cells, and may also be a key technology for the next
generation of airport security scanners.” (2)
(1) International Telecommunication Union Recommendation ITU-R V.431-8
Nomenclature of the frequency and wavelength bands used in telecommunications
(2) S.S. Dhillon et. al., “The 2017 terahertz science and technology roadmap.”
J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 50 (2017) 043001.
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Trapped Ions
Modular approach to quantum computing
“The availability of a universal quantum computer may have a fundamental impact on a
vast number of research fields and on society as a whole. An increasingly large scientific
and industrial community is working toward the realization of such a device. An arbitrarily
large quantum computer may best be constructed using a modular approach.
With appropriate adjustments, the proposed modules are also suitable for alternative trapped
ion quantum computer architectures, such as schemes using photonic interconnects.”
B. Lekitsch et. al., “Blueprint for a microwave trapped ion quantum computer.” Sci Adv 2017
Feb 1;3(2):e1601540.
Image: Fig. 4. Scalable module illustration. © 2017 the authors. Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Twistronics
A new angle on two dimensions
“Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials and their hetero-structures have attracted a lot of attention due
to their unique electrical, optical, and mechanical properties…Twist angle between adjacent layers of
two-dimensional (2D) layered materials provides an exotic degree of freedom to enable various fascinating
phenomena, which opens a research direction—twistronics. To realize the practical applications of
twistronics, it is of the utmost importance to control the interlayer twist angle on large scales…
Our work provides a firm basis for the development of twistronics.”
M. Liao, et. al., “Precise control of the interlayer twist angle in large scale MoS2 homostructures.”
Nat Commun. 2020; 11: 2153.
Image: Showing Fig. 1, Twist angle engineering of multilayer MoS2 homostructures, Section d. The
water-assisted transfer process. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) are used as transfer medium.
© The Authors 2020. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Wireless Charging
Getting close, but that’s not the idea
It was Nikola Tesla's vision that free electrical energy could be provided
wirelelessly. Due to the unfortunate circumstances with his funding
because of J.P. Morgan's need to make a profit, demonstration of Tesla’s
Wardenclyffe Tower built just after 1900 was not realized. Devices today
like cellphones and toothbrushes can be inductively charged on a base
without metal contacts, but not truly in free space. Hurdles remain.
“You can't sell wireless tech in the U.S. until the FCC has concluded that it’s safe and doesn't interfere with
existing wireless products At the moment, the agency permits wireless transmission in two categories:
very low power at a distance (such as WiFi) or higher power that is contained or localized (such as
microwaves or charging pads. Clearly neither category permits long-range, higher-power transmission." (1)
(1) D. Pogue, Cut That Last Cord: Charging your phone wirelessly all day long may not be far off."
Scientific American, Sept. 2017, p. 28.
Image: C-W. Chang et. al., “Alignment-Free Wireless Charging of Smart Garments with Embroidered Coils.”
Sensors (Basel). 2021 Nov; 21(21): 7372. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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