Microelectronics devices building blocks

The invention of the germanium transistor in 1947 [I, 2] marked the birth of modem microelectronics, a revolution that has profoundly influenced our current way of life. This early device was actually a bipolar transistor, a structure that is mainly used nowadays in amplifiers. However, logical circuits, and particularly microprocessors, preferentially use field-effect transistors (FETs), the concept of which was first proposed by Lilicnficld in 1930 [3], but was not used as a practical application until 1960 [4]. In a FET, the current flowing between two electrodes is controlled by the voltage applied to a third electrode. This operating mode recalls that of the vacuum triode, which was the building block of earlier radio and TV sets, and of the first electronic computers. 

The future use of dendrimers as fundamental building blocks will allow construction of an infinite variety of nanoscopic, microscopic, macroscopic assemblies and devices. These systems are expected to be of significant importance in the areas of advanced materials, biophysics, microelectronics, as well as medical diagnostics and therapy. 

Figure 5. A block diagram showing just some of the building blocks that microelectronic devices are comprised of.

It will be shown in the following discussion that ligand-stabilized metal clusters are promising building blocks for a new nanoscaled architecture which can be used to construct microelectronic devices. It will be pointed out that use of the principles... 

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