Scientists Invent First Functional Single-Atom Transistor

[btarunr]

A team of scientists at the ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication, at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), unveiled a fully functional single-atom transistor, which they predict will go on to become a critical building block of tomorrow's high-performance computing devices. The new transistor design was described in a paper, published by Nature. The active component of this transistor is a single phosphorous atom patterned between atomic-scale electrodes and control gates.

Single atom transistor designs have been attempted in the past, but those designs have had an error of about 10 nanometres in positioning of the atoms, which is big enough to affect their functionality. Professor Michelle Simmons, group leader of this study, said that this is the first time "anyone has shown control of a single atom in a substrate with this level of precise accuracy," adding that "Several groups have tried this, but if you want to make a practical computer in the long-term you need to be able to put lots of individual atoms in."



A video presentation by the group follows.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to Jack Doph for the tip.

 

[thematrix606]

You guys remember when people said 11nm was the theoretical limit for transistors a few years back?

researchers.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Good. I wonder the size of a CPU die with 10 billions of those on it...

 

[NC37]

Chobits here we come!

 

[PLAfiller]

Chobits here we come!

It is your commentary Sir that made me search in Google for the word "Chobits" in order to understand what your humble opinion expresses . If I am right it's a reference for an anime TV series called "The Chobits". From the plot summary, not my cup of tea . On topic though, hardly we will get there so fast

 

[NC37]

It is your commentary Sir that made me search in Google for the word "Chobits" in order to understand what your humble opinion expresses . If I am right it's a reference for an anime TV series called "The Chobits". From the plot summary, not my cup of tea . On topic though, hardly we will get there so fast

To answer your question, yes. Although it just goes by Chobits. It is about android personal computers called Persecoms. Chobits is the term for the legendary ones which borderline artificial life. Have emotions/etc.

Its by CLAMP. Anything they touch is pretty much fantastic.

 

[Drone]

The next stop is single electron transistor.

 

[Red_Machine]

Chobits here we come!

I, for one, welcome our future robot companions!

 

[redeye]

The next stop is single electron transistor.

You, Sir are funny...
Forget the sarcasm tag?... I'll assume you didn't.
A transistor modifys a voltage using another input... And since an electron is a charge, it is an impossible task to create a transistor from an electron. Not to mention an electron is a part of an atom.

 

[silkstone]

You, Sir are funny...
Forget the sarcasm tag?... I'll assume you didn't.
A transistor modifys a voltage using another input... And since an electron is a charge, it is an impossible task to create a transistor from an electron. Not to mention an electron is a part of an atom.

Single/Multiple neutron transistor?

 

[OneCool]

Im not even going to act like I understood anything I just read

 

[WarraWarra]

Finally Intel can claim Intel Atom inside ROFL.

 

[TIGR]

....impossible....

I would be very careful with that word if I were you.

 

[araditus]

Single/Multiple neutron transistor?

a neutron is just a proton with an electron stuck inside it, its not a neutral charge is a equal + and - charge that balance out. besides we couldn't ever use single electrons, when electrons leave their cloud and get far enough from a nucleus we don't know where they go, perhaps another dimension. but only 90% of the time we can even detect the same electron, because sometimes they seem to be in 2 places at once.

 

[AphexDreamer]

So atom size transistors and data stored on photons is the way of the future?

 

[m1dg3t]

Thought i saw mention of this on "Daily Planet" within the last couple week's, it's about time! Possibly we'll be able to time/space travel by the end of this century

Plasma rocket tech is coming along nicely, we almost have enough push

 

[St.Alia-Of-The-Knife]

Single/Multiple neutron transistor?

wont work, neutrons are unstable and decays in 30min i believe

 

[boomstik360]

Many Thanks to Jack Doph for the tip.

I laughed so hard when I read that.

Anyway, this is awesome. Great news for future CPU's!

 

[silkstone]

a neutron is just a proton with an electron stuck inside it, its not a neutral charge is a equal + and - charge that balance out. besides we couldn't ever use single electrons, when electrons leave their cloud and get far enough from a nucleus we don't know where they go, perhaps another dimension. but only 90% of the time we can even detect the same electron, because sometimes they seem to be in 2 places at once.

Thought they were made of quarks.

wont work, neutrons are unstable and decays in 30min i believe

Only 15 mins.

 

[Drone]

And since an electron is a charge

Wrong. Electron is not a "charge", it's a lepton, a particle.

Not to mention an electron is a part of an atom.

As I said above electron is a particle it can have a life of its own.

a neutron is just a proton with an electron stuck inside it

Man, that's bullcrap. Neutrons don't have electrons "stuck inside" them. Electrons can only bound to atoms. Otherwise they are free.

Neutron and proton have different quark structures. Yes neutron and proton can shapeshift but they are not the same.

 

[silkstone]

Wrong. Electron is not a "charge", it's a lepton, a particle.

As I said above electron is a particle it can have a life of its own.



Man, that's bullcrap. Neutrons don't have electrons "stuck inside" them. Electrons can only bound to atoms. Otherwise they are free.

There is a small chance they can be absorbed by a proton which creates a neutron + neutrino. The Neutron will then decay again into a proton, neutron and anti-neutrino.

But, what happens is very different from just "being made up of a proton + electron"

 

[thematrix606]

You guys are way off with this discussion about particles... *throws oscillating strings into the ballpark*

GO FETCH!