Modern day chips are marvels of miniaturization. The size of a typical component (say, a transistor) in a top-of-the-line Pentium-4 processor is about 0.13 micron (1 micron = millionth of a meter). In comparison, a human hair is about 60-90 microns wide! As demands on processor speed and data bandwidth are rising, the push for miniaturization is increasing. However, quantum physics imposes a barrier at about 0.01 micron, below which quantum effects become more dominant (this would cause random changes in data bits inside the processor, for example), and must be taken into consideration. Now researchers at University of Delaware could break down the brick wall of miniaturization and revolutionize modern electronics through the formation and control of wires made of molecules.

Nano-wire (Courtesy: Technischen Universität München)A typical transistor inside a microprocessor is a fraction of a micron in size. But even then, it is made up of thousands of silicon and other atoms. Many research groups all over the world have been pursuing alternate avenues by which to make smaller electronic devices. One of the approach is to create molecular-sized devices, by lining up molecules in a string. Such wires can have novel properties, and can be used to replace components in a processor. Such nano-wired processors would consume less energy, would be much faster (1000 GHz or more) than modern processors, and have more functionalities.
Such next generation of molecular processors would be the pinnacle in miniaturization. The second half of the 20th century was the era of micro-electronics. The first half of the 21st might just be the era of nano-electronics.