Electronic devices such as vacuum tubes and transistors transformed the 20th Century. The invention of the vacuum tube diode and triode in the early part of the century led to wireless communication and the golden age of radio entertainment. The invention of the transistor enabled personal electronics, such as the transistor radio, as well as the widespread use of digital computers. With the invention of the integrated circuit, the personal electronics that we now take for granted became possible. Progress in electronics was driven by making the fundamental electronic building block, the transistor, smaller and smaller. At the beginning of the 21st Century, transistor dimensions started to be measured in nanometers. The 21st century is the age of nanoelectronics and will be transformed by increasingly powerful electronic products. At the same time, new applications that apply nanoelectronics to challenges in health, the environment, and energy will be increasingly important. This talk is an introduction to the past, present, and future of nanoelectronics.

Mark Lundstrom is the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He was the founding director of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology and now serves as chairman of its Executive Committee. Lundstrom earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota in 1973 and 1974, respectively and joined the Purdue faculty upon completing his doctorate on the West Lafayette campus in 1980. Before attending Purdue, he worked at Hewlett-Packard Corporation on MOS process development and manufacturing. At Purdue, he has worked on solar cells, heterostructure devices, carrier transport physics, and the physics and simulation of nanoscale transistors. His current research interests focus on the physics and technology of energy conversion devices. Lundstrom is a fellow the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has received several awards for his contributions to research and education and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Mark Lundstrom (2010), "WALLA Lecture: Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics," https://nanohub.org/resources/8919.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. nanoelectronics
2. nanotransistors
3. NCN Transistor @ 75
4. transistors