Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. Microelectronics, as the name suggests, is related to the study and manufacture, or microfabrication, of electronic components which are very small (usually micrometre-scale or smaller, but not always). These devices are made from semiconductors. Many components of normal electronic design are available in microelectronic equivalent: transistors, capacitors,inductors, resistors, diodes and of course insulators and conductors can all be found in microelectronic devices. Unique wiring techniques such as wire bonding are also often used in microelectronics because of the unusually small size of the components, leads and pads. This technique requires specialized equipment.
Digital integrated circuits (ICs) consist mostly of transistors. Analog circuits commonly contain resistors and capacitors as well. Inductors are used in some high frequency analog circuits, but tend to occupy large chip area if used at low frequencies; gyrators can replace them in many applications.
As techniques improve, the scale of microelectronic components continues to decrease. At smaller scales, the relative impact of intrinsic circuit properties such as interconnections may become more significant. These are called parasitic effects, and the goal of the microelectronics design engineer is to find ways to compensate for or to minimize these effects, while always delivering smaller, faster, and cheaper devices.
Molecular electronics (sometimes called moletronics) is a branch of nanotechology dealing with the study and application of molecular building blocks for the fabrication of electronic components. This includes both passive and active components .
An interdisciplinary pursuit, molecular electronics spans physics, chemistry, and materials science. The unifying feature is the use of molecular building blocks for the fabrication of electronic components. This includes both passive (e.g. resistive wires) and active (e.g. transistors) components. The concept of molecular electronics has aroused much excitement both in science fiction and among scientists due to the prospect of size reduction in electronics offered by molecular-level control of properties. Molecular electronics provides means to extend Moore's Law beyond the foreseen limits of small-scale conventional silicon integrated circuits.
Due to the broad use of the term, molecular electronics can be split into two related but separate subdisciplines: molecular materials for electronics utilizes the properties of the molecules to affect the bulk properties of a material, while molecular scale electronics focuses on single-molecule applications............
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