The 5 next trends in electronics

The era of electronics began with the invention of the transistor in 1947 and silicon-based semiconductor technology. Seven decades later, we are surrounded by electronic devices and, much as we try to deny it, we rely on them in our everyday lives.

The performance of silicon-based devices has improved rapidly in the past few decades, mostly due to novel processing and patterning technologies, while nanotechnology has allowed for miniaturization and cost reduction.

For many years silicon remained the only option in electronics. But recent developments in materials-engineering and nanotechnology have introduced new pathways for electronics. While traditional silicon electronics will remain the main focus, alternative trends are emerging. These include:

1. 2-D electronics

Interest in the field started with the discovery of graphene, a structural variant of carbon. Carbon atoms in graphene form a hexagonal two-dimensional lattice, and this atom-thick layer has attracted attention due to its high electrical and thermal conductivity, mechanical flexibility and very high tensile strength. Graphene is the strongest material ever tested.

In 2010, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their “groundbreaking experiments” in graphene research.

Graphnene may have started this 2D revolution in electronics, but silicene, phosphorene and stanene, atom-thick allotropes of silicon, phosphorus and tin, respectively, have a similar honeycomb structure with different properties, resulting in different applications.

All four have the potential to change electronics as we know it, allowing for miniaturization, higher performance and cost reduction. Several companies around the globe, including Samsung and Apple, are developing applications based on graphene.

2. Organic electronics

The development of conducting polymers and their applications resulted in another Nobel prize in 2000, this time in chemistry. Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa proved that plastic can conduct electricity.

Unlike conventional inorganic conductors and semiconductors, organic electronic materials are constructed from organic (carbon-based) molecules or polymers using chemical synthesis. Organic electronics is not limited to conducting polymers, but includes other organic materials that might be of use in electronics. These include a variety of dyes, organic charge-transfer complexes, and many other organic molecules.

In terms of performance and industrial development, organic molecules and polymers cannot yet compete with their inorganic counterparts. However, organic electronics have some advantages over conventional electronic materials. Low material and production costs, mechanical flexibility, adaptability of synthesis processes and biocompatibility make organic electronics a desirable choice for certain applications.

Commercially available high-tech products relying on organic semiconductors, such as curved television screens, displays for smartphones, coloured light sources and portable solar cells, demonstrate the industrial maturity of organic electronics. In fact, several high-tech companies, including LG Electronics and Samsung, have invested in cheap and high-performance organic-electronic devices. It is expected that the organic electronics market will grow rapidly in the coming years.

3. Memristors

In 1971 Leon Chua reasoned from symmetry arguments that there should be a fourth fundamental electronic circuit-board element (in addition to the resistor, capacitor and inductor) which he called memristor, a portmanteau of the words memory and resistor. Although Chua showed that memristors have many interesting and valuable properties, it wasn’t until 2007 that a group of researchers from Hewlett Packard Labs found that the memristance effect can be present in nanoscale systems under certain conditions. Many researchers believe that memristors could end electronics as we know it and begin a new era of “ionics”.

While commonly available transistor functions use a flow of electrons, the memristor couples the electrons with ions, or electrically charged atoms. In transistors, once the flow of electrons is interrupted (for example by switching off the power) all information is lost. Memristors “memorize” and store information about the amount of charge that has flowed through them, even when the power is off.

The discovery of memristors paves the way to better information storage, making novel memory devices faster, safer and more efficient. There will be no information loss, even if the power is off. Memristor-based circuits will allow us to switch computers on and off instantly, and start work straight away.

For the past several years, Hewlett Packard has been working on a new type of computer based on memristor technology. HP plans to launch the product by 2020.

4. Spintronics

Spintronics, a portmanteau word meaning “spin transport electronics”, is the use of a fundamental property of particles known as “electron spin” for information processing. Electron spin can be detected as a magnetic field with one of two orientations: up and down. This provides an additional two binary states to the conventional low and high logic values, which are represented by simple currents. Carrying information in both the charge and spin of an electron potentially offers devices with a greater diversity of functionality.

So far, spintronic technology has been tested in information-storage devices, such as hard drives and spin-based transistors. Spintronics technology also shows promise for digital electronics in general. The ability to manipulate four, rather than only two, defined logic states may result in greater information-processing power, higher data transfer speed, and higher information-storage capacity.

It is expected that spin transport electronic devices will be smaller, more versatile and more robust compared with their silicon counterparts. So far this technology is in the early development stage and, irrespective of intense research, we have to wait a couple of years to see the first commercial spin-based electronic chip.

5. Molecular electronics

The ultimate goal of electrical circuits is miniaturization. Also known as single molecule electronics, this is a branch of nanotechnology that uses single molecules or collections of single molecules as electronic building blocks.

Molecular electronics and the organic electronics described above have a lot in common, and these two fields overlap each other in some aspects. To clarify, organic electronics refers to bulk applications, while molecular-scale electronics refers to nano-scale, single-molecule applications.

Conventional electronics are traditionally made from bulk materials. However, the trend of miniaturization in electronics has forced the feature sizes of the electronic components to shrink accordingly. In single-molecule electronics, the bulk material is replaced by single molecules. The smaller size of the electronic components decreases power consumption while increasing the sensitivity (and sometimes performance) of the device. Another advantage of some molecular systems is their tendency to self-assemble into functional blocks. Self-assembly is a phenomenon in which the components of a system come together spontaneously, due to an interaction or environmental factors, to form a larger functional unit.

Several molecular electronic solutions have been developed, including molecular wires, single-molecule transistors and rectifiers. However, molecular electronics is still in the early research phase, and none of these devices has left the laboratory.

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Author: Bart Kolodziejczyk, Research Fellow, Monash University

Image: A visitor looks at a LG Electronics’ flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV during World IT show 2013 at the Coex convention centre in Seoul May 22, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji