IEEE AEROSPACE AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS SOCIETY CHAPTER

Washington and Northern Virginia Sections

OFFICERS:

Chairman: Mike Cardinale (cardinalem@raveninc.com) 703-642-3538

Vice-Chairman: Ron Ticker (ron.ticker@gsfc.nasa.gov)

Secretary: Irv Salzberg (imsalzberg@aol.com)

NEXT MEETING: Advances Toward Molecular-Scale Electronic Digital Computers: a Review and Prospectus

DATE: 8 June 1999 [Tuesday]

TIME: 12:00 noon to 1:00 PM. Bring your brown bag lunch.

BACKGROUND: For the past 40 years there has been continual, rapid miniaturization of electronic circuits in order to produce ever more powerful computers. This has been the engine driving the information technology revolution, which, in turn, has been responsible for robust world economic growth over the past two decades. However, there are significant economic and technical obstacles that are facing the electronics industry over the next few years, as it attempts to continue the miniaturization of conventional bulk-effect, solid-state, silicon circuits from the present micron scale down to the nanometer scale. For one thing, no matter how they are fabricated, such nanometer-scale electronics, or "nanoelectronics," will be only slightly bigger than the individual molecules that compose matter. Recently, though, there have been some significant advances in the fabrication and demonstration of radically different electrical switches and wires that actually are made from individual molecules. The speaker will describe how one might design and build an ultra-dense electronic computer that incorporates such nanometer-scale molecular electronic devices. That is, based upon the advances to date, the speaker will describe what the molecular logic circuitry for such a nanoelectronic computer might "look" like?. Recent results will be discussed from the ongoing effort at The MITRE Corporation to develop a realizable architecture for a molecular-scale electronic computer. This discussion also will include an explanation of the structure and the operation of unique MITRE designs for molecular electronic digital logic circuits that were invented recently. In addition, the speaker will speculate on unique applications of small, low-power nanoelectronic computers. Particular attention will be given to the possible integration of such nanoelectronics into space systems and into micro-electromechanical systems for the control of micro-machinery and micro-sensors.

SPEAKER: Dr. James C. Ellenbogen is Principal Scientist at the MITRE Corporation and Principal Investigator of MITRE's Nanosystems Modeling and Nanoelectronic Computers Research Project. Dr. Ellenbogen received his Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Georgia in 1977, as well as an M.S. in chemical physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1972. During the past six years he has devoted his energies to furthering the science and technology for designing and developing electronic computers integrated on the nanometer scale. In that effort he has collaborated in the development of unique designs for nanoelectronic devices and authored or co-authored several widely cited technical articles on nanoelectronics. In addition, Dr. Ellenbogen is the author of a number of technical papers on the modeling, simulation, and testing of military systems; on the theory of command and control; and on diverse topics in computer science, physics, and chemistry. He worked at several universities before joining The MITRE Corporation in 1984. As part of his duties at MITRE, Dr. Ellenbogen also is the Coordinator of the MITRE Student Program, which he helped to found in 1989.

PLACE: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt Md, Bldg 12, Room C200

DIRECTIONS: From the Beltway take Greenbelt Rd (Rte 183) to the front gate of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

CONTACT: Irv Salzberg (imsalzberg@aol.com)