ABSTRACT
Enormous progress has been accomplished in semiconductor devices, integrated circuits (ICs) design, microelectronics, and ICs fabrication. ¡e aforementioned astonishing fundamental, applied, and technological developments led to mass production of high-performance ICs and processors with billions of transistors for various applications. Enabling materials, processes, and tools led to a current lithography-de¢ned 40 nm “DRAM Metal 1 Half-Pitch” which is also known as a “technology node” [1]. Various fundamental limits will emerge within a foreseen scaling toward 20 and 10 nm features by 2017 and 2023 [1]. ¡e device physics of conventional semiconductor devices is based on principles and laws of classical physics. ¡e technology performance evaluation criteria are performance, scalability, energy eªciency, on/o« current, operational reliability, operational temperature, technology compatibility, and architecture compatibility [1]. As the planar solid-state devices have been scaled down to hundreds of nanometer in dimensions, the undesirable quantum phenomena signi¢cantly degrade the
7.1 Introduction ......................................................................................125 7.2 Molecular and Biomolecular Processing ......................................126 7.3 Energetics, Parallelism, and Descriptive Features
of Signaling and Communication ..................................................132 7.4 Microtubules, Microtubule-Associated Proteins,
and Tubulins ..................................................................................142 7.5 Guided Waves and Waveguides......................................................143 7.6 Field-Emitting and Quantum-E«ect Macroscopic
and Microscopic Devices ..................................................................148 7.7 Quantum Mechanics: Quantum State Transitions,
Energetics, and Analysis ...................................................................152 7.8 Quantum Mechanics and Microscopic Systems ...........................155 7.9 Quantum Processing: Premise and Solutions ..............................161 7.10 Quantum Mechanics and Naive Quantum Computing .............162 7.11 Quantum Statistical Mechanics and Information ¡eory ..........167 7.12 Calculi and Arithmetics of Quantum Processing .......................173 7.13 Conclusions........................................................................................175 References ......................................................................................................175
overall device and ICs performance and functionality. In the last decades, the focused research activities have been centered on quantum-e«ect devices. A signi¢cant progress has been accomplished in widely deployed resonant-tunneling devices, solid-state, inorganic and organic lasers, etc. [1-3]. To fully utilize quantum phenomena and enable new features, one should progress beyond current macroscopic microelectronic paradigms and focus on quantum-mechanical microscopic solutions. ¡e microscopic-centric paradigm ultimately implies new device physics of subatomic/atomic/molecular devices, novel communication and processing principles, new interfacing and networking schemes, innovative synthesis and fabrication, etc. Quantum phenomena and e«ects, exhibited by microscopic systems (subatomic, atomic, molecular, and others), may be utilized to ensure processing tasks. ¡ere are enormous challenges and complexities which range from quantum-mechanical analysis to synthesis, interfacing, testing, and characterization of microscopic devices and systems. Solutions of the aforementioned problem promise one to enable processing with unprecedented performance and capabilities.
