Status and Trends in Molecular Electronics

Abstract

Miniaturization of integrated circuits is happening at a rapid pace since the last two decades. Physical limits are beginning to saturate the growth of Si-CMOS technology and have prompted technologists to look for alternative approaches for miniaturization. Molecular Electronics is proving to be a viable option to fabricating high-density circuits, leveraging properties of organic molecules. Carbon nanotubes, polyphenylenes, porphyrins and DNA strands are some of the molecules that are being actively researched upon. In this article the current status of research in the area of molecular electronics is reviewed, and the roadblocks identified using an extensive database of research in this area. The current research efforts in the area of molecular electronics at IIT Bombay are also briefly discussed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shantanu Rastogi

Shantanu Rastogi obtained his BTech degree in Electrical Engineering and MTech in Microelectronics in 2001 from IIT Bombay, Mumbai. He worked on a project concerning Molecular Electronics and specifically DNA conduction for his Dual Degree Project. He is currently employed as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company in India.

V Ramgopal Rao

V Ramgopal Rao obtained his MTech from IIT Bombay in 1991 and Dr-Ing (magna-cum-laude) degree from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universitaet der Bundeswehr Munich, Germany in May 1997. His doctoral thesis was on Planar-Doped-Barrier Sub 100 n m Channel Length. MOSFETs. He was a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst/German-Academic-Exchange Service) fellow for three years during 1994–1996 and, during 1997–1998, a visiting scholar with the EE Department, University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay. Dr Rao's areas of interest include ultra thin gate oxides and their reliability due to plasma and hot-carrier stress, high-k dielectrics, gate and channel engineering issues for deep submicron MOSFETs, novel devices, and Molecular Electronics. He has over 100 publications in these areas in refereed international journals and conference proceedings and holds one international and a European patent in the area of vertical MOSFETs. He closely interacts with various semi-conductor industries in India and abroad and has many ongoing sponsored projects from various industries. He also collaborates with various research groups in Europe and USA. Prof Rao is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Fellow of IETE. He is closely associated with the IEEE activities in the Bombay region, and is currently the vice-chairman of the AP/ED Bombay Chapter.

Ritesh Jhaveri

Ritesh Jhaveri is currently a student in the final year of the engineering physics programme for the 4 year BTech degree in the Physics department, IIT Bombay. He is currently working on a project dealing with molecular electronics with emphasis on DNA conduction for his final year BTech Project.

S Mukherji

Soumyo Mukherji received his BTech degree in Instrumentation from IIT Kharagpur, MS in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University (Fort Collins, USA) and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, USA). He is currently working in Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay as an Assistant Professor. His research interests include sensors including biosensors, cardiac electrophysiology (ischemia related sudden cardiac death) and telemedicine. He has worked extensively in characterizing and modeling electrophysiological and ionic changes associated with acute myocardial ischemia. He is a member of BMES (USA), IEEE and BMESI (India).

M Ravikanth

Ravikanth obtained his PhD from IIT Kanpur in 1994. For his doctoral work, he synthesized a series of nonplanar porphyrins and studied the effect of nonplanarity on spectral and electrochemical properties of the porphyrins. He spent one year as a visiting researcher in Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai working on photophysical and nonlinear optical properties of porphyrins and phthalocyanines. In 1995, he moved to North Carolina State University, USA as a post-doctoral fellow and worked for two and half years on synthesis of diaryl ethyne bridged multiporphyrin arrays. Later he spent as a Japanese Society for Promotion of Science fellow in Kyoto university, Japan for about a year before joining as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, IIT-Bombay in May 1999. His interests includes synthesis of novel porphyrins and its analogs and their applications in various fields of science including medicine.