Microelectronics/nanoelectronics and the 21st century

The advent of nonphotolithographic lithography, new electronic materials, and the devices, circuits, and systems they enable will see the electronics revolution of the 20th century to continue well into the 21st century. New lithographic techniques using tools such as nano-imprint and AFM are expected to lead to electronic circuits with lateral spatial resolution under 10 nm. When coupled with innovative materials such as those exhibiting giant magnetoresistance, new ultradense, ultrafast, nonvolatile memory is expected to ensue. New records are expected to be set in solid state laser output power when new wide bandgap semiconductors are combined with concepts such as the quantum cascade laser. Differential etching techniques that have proven efficacious in the design of surface emitting lasers are expected to propel bipolar transistor switching speeds into the THz spectrum with resultant logic devices clocking at well over 100 GHz. This increase will lead to improved signal processing capability. New advances in control of the phase stability of local oscillators and amplifiers will lead to electromagnetic systems with much greater Doppler resolution for radar and much better spectral utilization for communications systems. Devices and ICs combining semiconductors and magnetic spin states are expected to lead to a new class of ICs whose functionality can be dynamically changed in order to adapt optimally to the computational or sensing requirements of the moment. Further advances are expected to accrue in the area of nanophotonics, where device sizes can be smaller than the wavelength of the light they emit or receive.