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242 Appendix C. European Roundtable Discussions
1 µm
0.5 µm
0.05 µm
’Nano Era’
1990 2010 2020
Figure C.1. Moore’s Law in the “Nano Era.”
Another interesting talk and industrial perspective was given by Dr.
Sandip Tiwari of IBM, who spoke on “Nanocrystal and quantum-dot
memories.” His plan is to integrate and take advantage of silicon quantum
dots in a more natural way, within the context of “mainstream” silicon
electronics. This would entail the controlled and discrete charging of
nanodots, placed immediately above a gate oxide in a MOS device, as a
means of controlling the source to drain current, with an enormous gain in
output compared to input signal. His claim is that such an application can
operate at room temperature, integrate and enhance a dominant technology,
and not suffer from many of the drawbacks of nanodots, such as long
charging/access times and variations in dimension.