ABSTRACT
Many new physical phenomena have been suggested as a basis for new data-processing devices. However, in order to achieve any practical value, each new idea has to be successful not only at the device stage but it is also necessary to develop and test a series of increasingly complicated structures based on the new device. In applications, some of the devices are mainly intended to carry out Boolean logic operations and some are intended to be used as memory devices for the storage of binary data. Some are potentially capable of use in both logic and memory devices. Although the vast majority of nanoelectronic devices are based on some quantum mechanical effect, they are intended to implement the classical computing principles of the universal Turing machine or some variation of this concept. The great advantage of semiconductor structures such as the metal-oxide–semiconductor field effect transistor was the potential for scaling down individual devices.
