Title:
Self-Assembled, Self-Ordered Nanostructures:
A Path to 21st Century Electronics?
Ted Kamins
Quantum Structures Research Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

Abstract:

As integrated-circuit features scale to smaller dimensions, the number of electrons in the active portion of a transistor decreases. When the device contains only a few electrons or even one electron, conventional scaling will end, and a different method of device operation will be needed. Even before then, with smaller device features, integrated-circuit fabrication is becoming more complex, and the cost of IC fabrication facilities may become an economic limit.

As we approach these fundamental and practical limits, methods of achieving electronic functions without critical lithography appear increasingly attractive. Self-assembled, self-ordered nanostructures, or quantum dots (islands), made from conventional semiconductors offer one potential approach to forming very small features without correspondingly advanced lithography. Conventional lithography may be used to position the islands or arrays of islands, but not to determine their size. Potential applications of these quantum dots range from those only needing a random array of uniform-size islands (eg, photosensors or emitters) to those requiring an ordered array and alignment of the array to features formed by conventional lithography (eg, cellular automata).

After some brief remarks on potential applications of quantum dots for computation and optical devices, this talk will discuss forming, ordering, and aligning small germanium islands on silicon. The possible combination of arrays of small islands with a defect-tolerant computer architecture will be mentioned.