Molecular Electronics Shrinks Circuits
Chemical & Engineering News · 1960
WESTIXGHOUSE Electric has stripped the wraps from its research program on molecular electronics, a concept which it believes may well make obsolete the component approach to electronic circuitry. In practice, the concept means making one block of material function as a transmitter or amplifier, for example, thus doing away with the need for inductors, resistors, capacitors, and other components. A single piece of matter, plus input and output leads, replaces an entire circuit. Key to molecular electronics, says Dr. S. W. Herwald, Westinghouse's vice president for research, is tying together solid state effects such as Seebeck generation, Peltier cooling, and Hall-effect multiplication with p-n semiconductor junctions. These effects are arranged to produce the desired result, such as amplification. Basis for the functions is a single crystal of a semiconductor such as germanium. Westinghouse can grow single dendritic crystals of germanium at 6 to 12 inches per minute, then arrange domains ...