Molecular electronics

Molecular electronics studies electronics at the molecular level. Its goal is to use a single molecule, supramolecule or molecular cluster to replace solid electronic components such as silicon-based semiconductor transistors to assemble logic circuits and even complete molecular computers. Its research contents include the synthesis and performance test of various molecular electronic devices, and how to assemble them to achieve certain logic functions. Compared with traditional solid-state electronics, molecular electronics has powerful advantages.

The current microelectronic processing technology will approach the limit of development in 10 years. The continuous reduction of linewidth will make solid-state electronic devices no longer follow the traditional operation law; At the same time, the reduction of linewidth also increases the processing cost Molecular electronics is expected to solve these problems In Pentium computer chip, 107 ~ 108 electronic components can be integrated on an area of 1cm2, while molecular electronics allows 1014 single molecular electronic components to be integrated on an area of the same size [1]. The improvement of integration will greatly improve the operation speed At the same time, because molecular electronics assembles logic circuits from bottom to top, and the components are synthesized in large quantities through chemical reaction, the production cost will be greatly reduced compared with the traditional lithography method At present, in order to seize the commanding heights of future science and technology, many developed countries have formulated special plans for the development of Nano Electronics and molecular electronics, invested huge human and material resources, and made a series of breakthroughs On December 21, 2001, science magazine of the United States rated a series of achievements in molecular electronics as the first of the top ten scientific and technological advances in 2001