Reconfigurable Computing

Chapter 38. Reconfigurable Computing and Nanoscale Architecture

André DeHonDepartment of Electrical and Systems EngineeringUniversity of Pennsylvania

For roughly four decades integrated circuits have been patterned top down with optical lithography, and feature sizes, F, have shrunk in a predictable, geometric fashion. With feature sizes now far below optical wavelengths (c.f. 400 nm violet light and 65 nm feature sizes) and approaching atomic lattice spacings (c.f. 65 nm feature sizes and 0.5 nm silicon lattice), it becomes more difficult and more expensive to pattern arbitrary features.

At the same time, fundamental advances in synthetic chemistry allow the assembly of structures made of a small and precise number of atoms, providing an alternate, ...