Stephen M. Goodnick,
Department of Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University,
P.O. Box 875706, Tempe, AZ 85287-5706, . USA e-mail: Stephen.Goodnick@asu.edu

6.1 Introduction

The past decade has witnessed an enormous growth of a quite diverse set of multidisciplinary science and engineering disciplines broadly falling under an umbrella called nanotechnology . Nanotechnology literally implies technology at nanometer scale dimensions (10 ^?9 m). From that standpoint, nanotechnology is not a recent phenomenon; nanostructured materials have been used for centuries to enhance the properties of tools, ceramics, building materials, etc. (tempered steel used for sword making is a good example). However, the historical applications of nanotechnology were purely empirical, with no underlying knowledge of the nanoscale material structure. In contrast, the current nanotechnology revolution is driven by and large by our ability to probe, analyze, and manipulate matter at this size scale. The transition from the macro to micro to nano is not abrupt, but occurs smoothly over multiple length scales. As a result, there is quite a bit of ambiguity, in what is truly nanotechnology as opposed to microelectronics, micromachining, cellular biology, etc. Somewhat arbitrarily, we define nanometer scale to characteristic feature sizes on the order of 100 nm, or less in terms of the separation of the micro- and nano-worlds.

Nanoelectronics generally refers to nanometer scale devices, circuits, and architectures impacting continued scaling of information processing systems, including communication and sensor systems, as well as providing an interface between the electronic and biological worlds. The present attention on nanotechnology...