ITR: Nanoarchitecture: Balancing Regularity, Complexity, and Defect Tolerance using DNA for Nanoelectronic Integration

传统的自上而下制造的电子产品的小型化预计将在未来一二十年内达到极限。此外，为传统的CMOS建造制造设施的成本可能会变得令人望而却步。这些问题导致半导体行业协会将实施可能显著影响未来集成电路和微处理器生产的非CMOS解决方案确定为其重大挑战之一。为了迎接这一挑战，这个跨学科项目采用了垂直整合的方法，使用自下而上的过程将定义良好的纳米级构建块自组装成功能纳米电子结构。该项目旨在通过利用DNA自组装来产生图案化的纳米结构来克服纳米电子集成中存在的问题。长期目标是通过DNA自组装纳米电子设备来构建计算设备。这一目标将通过一系列更温和的步骤来实现，首先是DNA组装纳米电子元件(例如，碎裂的碳纳米管)的实验演示，然后是将非常少量的这些元件组装成一个小电路的DNA组装。为了帮助指导这些努力，该项目将同时探索这项新技术对计算机体系结构的影响。特别是，PI寻求开发的架构在1)大规模DNA自组装构图能力的规律性、2)复杂系统设计所需的复杂性和3)对纳米级系统中存在的不可避免的缺陷的容忍度之间取得平衡。这三个架构属性之间的权衡渗透到该项目的所有方面，并为团队成员之间的闭环反馈提供了框架。

Miniaturization in electronics by conventional top-down manufacturing is expected to reach its limit during the next one to two decades. Furthermore, the cost of building fabrication facilities for conventional CMOS may become prohibitive. These issues caused theSemiconductor Industry Association to identify as one of its grand challenges the implementation of non-CMOS solutions that could significantly influence production of future integrated circuits and microprocessors. To meet this challenge, this interdisciplinary project takes a vertically integrated approach that uses a bottom-up process to self-assemble well-defined nanoscale building blocks into functional nanoelectronic structures. This project seeks to overcome existing problems in nanoelectronic integration by using DNA self-assemblies to produce patterned nanostructures.The long-term goal is to construct a computing device through DNA self-assembly of nanoelectronic devices. This goal will be achieved through a series of more modest steps, beginning with the experimental demonstration of DNA assembled nanoelectronic components (e.g., fragmented carbon nanotubes) and then DNA assembly of a very small number of these components into a small circuit. To help guide these efforts, this project will simultaneously explore the impact of this new technology on computer architecture. In particular, the PIs seekto develop architectures that strike a balance between 1) the regularity of large-scale DNA self-assembly patterning capabilities, 2) the complexity required for sophisticated system designs and 3)tolerance to the inevitable defects present in nanoscale systems. The trade-offs between these three architectural properties permeate all aspects of this project and provide the framework for closed-loop feedback among the team members.