NANOELECTRONICS – OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES.

As device sizes approach the nanoscale, new opportunities arise from harnessing the physical and chemical properties at the nanoscale. It is now feasible to contemplate new nanoelectronic systems based on new devices with completely new system architectures. This paper will give an overview of the materials, technology, and device opportunities in the nanoscale era. So far, much of the nanoscale sciences have been researched in the physics, chemistry, and materials science communities. While there have been plenty of good science in the nano world, nanotechnology is still at its infancy. The engineering community is poised to make a major impact in transforming good nanoscience into useful nanotechnology. The disciplined performance benchmarking against alternatives as practiced by the engineering community will prove to be invaluable to the development of new nanotechnologies. Examples of such performance benchmarking exercises will be shown and directions for future work will be suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]