from the I-just-put-it-down-and-now-I-can't-find-it dept.
An Anonymous Coward has provided a story entitled: This Tiny Electronic Chip Is Just 3 Atoms Thick
A tiny electronic chip just three atoms thick could yield advanced circuits that are powerful, flexible and transparent, researchers said in a new study. The scientists said the chip demonstrates a new way to mass-produce atomically thin materials and electronics.
These materials could be used to develop electronic displays on windows or windshields, along with powerful microchips in which circuitry spreads not just two-dimensionally but also rises three-dimensionally, the researchers said.
For more than 50 years, silicon has been the backbone of the electronics industry. However, as silicon transistors reach the limit of miniaturization, scientists worldwide are investigating new materials that could serve as the foundation of even tinier devices. In the past decade or so, researchers discovered that atomically thin materials could serve as the basis of electronic devices. For instance, sheets of graphene — a material related to the "lead" in pencils — are each just one carbon atom thick. Graphene is an excellent conductor of electricity, making it ideal for use in wiring.
[...] Instead of graphene, therefore, some researchers are exploring molybdenite, or molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), for use in advanced electronics. Molybdenum disulfide is a semiconductor, and the new study finds that molybdenum disulfide transistors "can be switched on and off significantly better than graphene and somewhat better than silicon," said study senior author Eric Pop, an electrical engineer at Stanford University in California.
[...] To create their ultrathin chip, the scientists incinerated small amounts of molybdenum and sulfur and then used the resulting vapor to form molecule-thin layers of molybdenum disulfide on a variety of surfaces, such as glass or silicon. "We went through a lot of painstaking trial and error to find the right combination of temperature and pressure to help grow these layers in a repeatable manner," Pop said.
Using this new technique, the researchers manufactured single-molecule-thick molybdenum disulfide chips measuring about 0.06 inches (1.5 millimeters) wide. These chips are each about 25 million times wider than they are thick, the researchers said.
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Toward brain-like computing: New memristor better mimics synapses
A new electronic device developed at the University of Michigan (U-M) can directly model the behaviors of a synapse, which is a connection between two neurons.
For the first time, the way that neurons share or compete for resources can be explored in hardware without the need for complicated circuits.
"Neuroscientists have argued that competition and cooperation behaviors among synapses are very important. Our new memristive devices allow us to implement a faithful model of these behaviors in a solid-state system," said Wei Lu, U-M professor of electrical and computer engineering and senior author of the study in Nature Materials.
[...] The memristor is a good model for a synapse. It mimics the way that the connections between neurons strengthen or weaken when signals pass through them. But the changes in conductance typically come from changes in the shape of the channels of conductive material within the memristor. These channels—and the memristor's ability to conduct electricity—could not be precisely controlled in previous devices.
Now, the U-M team has made a memristor in which they have better command of the conducting pathways.They developed a new material out of the semiconductor molybdenum disulfide—a "two-dimensional" material that can be peeled into layers just a few atoms thick. Lu's team injected lithium ions into the gaps between molybdenum disulfide layers.
They found that if there are enough lithium ions present, the molybdenum sulfide transforms its lattice structure, enabling electrons to run through the film easily as if it were a metal. But in areas with too few lithium ions, the molybdenum sulfide restores its original lattice structure and becomes a semiconductor, and electrical signals have a hard time getting through.
Related: This Tiny Electronic Chip Is Just 3 Atoms Thick
A New Generation of Artificial Retinas Based on 2-D Materials
Purdue University Researchers Identify Molybdenum Ditelluride as a Material for Next-Gen Memory
Ionic modulation and ionic coupling effects in MoS2 devices for neuromorphic computing (DOI: 10.1038/s41563-018-0248-5) (DX)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @03:13AM
Now you can have a head up display on your windshield to direct you to your next passenger.
Just kidding. You're fired because Uber cars are now self driving, your car has been repurposed to serve Uber, and you will be dumped into the gutter while your car drives away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @03:21AM
With enough CPU hardware advances, we'll be able to make a thinking electronic brain to enslave since there are no legal protections for machines.
But the elites don't need to bother because they can just exploit the unwashed and starving masses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11 2016, @08:56PM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @03:24AM
Lab to fab... 2 years? 5 years? 15 years?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:08AM
2:35 a.m.: MoS2 chip is very thin.
3:59 a.m.: Japan is gluing chips to people with Alzheimer's.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @09:09AM
It's called "progress". Get used to it becau ... [the conclusion of this message was broadcast to your hologram display]
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday December 10 2016, @11:36AM
Six words long.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11 2016, @02:50PM
Time to admit Vanna White is not really in the closet with you. It's only you and Tom Cruise.