Integrated circuits made of silicon single-electron devices

Abstract

Although rapid progress in silicon CMOS technology has enabled highly sophisticated information processing, higher levels of integration have come against the brick wall of power consumption. Single-electron devices (SEDs), which inherently have low power consumption, are a candidate for future low-power and highly functional devices. For such purposes, we must exploit the special features of SEDs. Here, the first topic is single-electron transfer, which is the ultimate operation in electronics. The room-temperature operation of the transfer and long-time holding of a single electron have already been attained. Consequently, new usages of SEDs are proposed for reducing the size and power consumption of the circuit.