Scientists Invent First Functional Single-Atom Transistor

btarunr · Feb 20, 2012, 08:52 AM

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.

Source: ABC News

btarunr · Feb 20, 2012, 08:56 AM

Many Thanks to Jack Doph for the tip.

thematrix606 · Feb 20, 2012, 09:11 AM

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

researchers.

Prima.Vera · Feb 20, 2012, 09:13 AM

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

NC37 · Feb 20, 2012, 09:27 AM

Chobits here we come!

lZKoce · Feb 20, 2012, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NC37

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 · Feb 20, 2012, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lZKoce

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 · Feb 20, 2012, 10:42 AM

The next stop is single electron transistor.

Red_Machine · Feb 20, 2012, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NC37

Chobits here we come!

I, for one, welcome our future robot companions!

redeye · Feb 20, 2012, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drone

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 · Feb 20, 2012, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redeye

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 · Feb 20, 2012, 02:18 PM

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

WarraWarra · Feb 20, 2012, 04:34 PM

Finally Intel can claim Intel Atom inside ROFL.

TIGR · Feb 20, 2012, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redeye

....impossible....

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

araditus · Feb 20, 2012, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silkstone

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 · Feb 20, 2012, 07:24 PM

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

m1dg3t · Feb 20, 2012, 07:53 PM

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 · Feb 20, 2012, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silkstone

Single/Multiple neutron transistor?

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

boomstik360 · Feb 20, 2012, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by btarunr

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 · Feb 21, 2012, 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by araditus

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by St.Alia-Of-The-Knife

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

Only 15 mins.

Drone · Feb 21, 2012, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redeye

And since an electron is a charge

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

Quote:

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by araditus

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 · Feb 21, 2012, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drone

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 · Feb 21, 2012, 09:07 AM

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

GO FETCH!

Feb 20, 2012, 08:52 AM	#1
btarunr Editor & Senior Moderator Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Hyderabad, India Posts: 14,981 (7.31/day) Thanks: 788 Thanked 12,895 Times in 5,647 Posts System Specs	Scientists Invent First Functional Single-Atom Transistor 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. Source: ABC News

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Feb 20, 2012, 08:56 AM	#2
btarunr Editor & Senior Moderator Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Hyderabad, India Posts: 14,981 (7.31/day) Thanks: 788 Thanked 12,895 Times in 5,647 Posts System Specs	Many Thanks to Jack Doph for the tip. __________________ Gadgets, Phones, Tablets, Cameras, TVs, HiFi...NextPowerUp

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Feb 20, 2012, 09:11 AM	#3
thematrix606 Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 85 (0.17/day) Thanks: 2 Thanked 14 Times in 10 Posts	You guys remember when people said 11nm was the theoretical limit for transistors a few years back? researchers.

Feb 20, 2012, 09:13 AM	#4
Prima.Vera Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Antagonia Posts: 1,360 (2.22/day) Thanks: 224 Thanked 179 Times in 120 Posts System Specs	Good. I wonder the size of a CPU die with 10 billions of those on it...

Feb 20, 2012, 09:27 AM	#5
NC37 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: The armpit of California Posts: 1,059 (0.64/day) Thanks: 156 Thanked 237 Times in 141 Posts System Specs	Chobits here we come! __________________ "We tried to help Intel, but they don’t listen much. We’ve been telling them for years that their graphics suck…" -Steve Jobs

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Feb 20, 2012, 10:42 AM	#8
Drone Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Nonlocal location Posts: 1,897 (1.91/day) Thanks: 62 Thanked 822 Times in 525 Posts System Specs	The next stop is single electron transistor. __________________ ...the young Universe was filled with a hot dense soup of interacting protons, electrons and photons at about 2700ºC. When the protons and electrons joined to form hydrogen atoms, the light was set free

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Feb 20, 2012, 02:18 PM	#12
OneCool Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Look behind you!! Posts: 795 (0.29/day) Thanks: 71 Thanked 58 Times in 39 Posts	Im not even going to act like I understood anything I just read

Feb 20, 2012, 04:34 PM	#13
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Feb 20, 2012, 07:24 PM	#16
AphexDreamer Eligible for custom title Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Aphexdreamer\ Posts: 5,614 (2.60/day) Thanks: 812 Thanked 888 Times in 674 Posts System Specs	So atom size transistors and data stored on photons is the way of the future? __________________ Sent from my PC using chrome.

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Feb 20, 2012, 07:53 PM	#17
m1dg3t Join Date: May 2010 Location: Canada Posts: 1,881 (1.72/day) Thanks: 623 Thanked 419 Times in 344 Posts System Specs	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 __________________ Why dazzle 'em with brilliance when you can baffle 'em with bullshit. Alterius non sit, qui potest esse sui! Und setzet ihr nicht das leben ein, Nie wird euch das leben gewonnen sein! If knowledge is power, then ignorance is bliss! If god didn't want them sheared, he wouldn't have made them sheep!

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Feb 21, 2012, 09:07 AM	#23
thematrix606 Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 85 (0.17/day) Thanks: 2 Thanked 14 Times in 10 Posts	You guys are way off with this discussion about particles... throws oscillating strings into the ballpark GO FETCH!

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