Radio-frequency nanoelectronics: A new paradigm in electronic systems design

Owing to the new qualitative and quantitative improvements that nanotechnology allows, nanoelectronics has the potential to introduce a paradigm shift in electronic systems design similar to that of the transition from vacuum tubes to semiconductor technology. Since many nano-scale devices and materials exhibit their most interesting properties at radiofrequencies (RF), nanoelectronics represent an enormous and yet largely undiscovered opportunity for the microwave engineering community, which can utilize its established body of modelling, design and measurement techniques with the aim to bridge the gap between nano-science and a new generation of extremely integrated devices, circuits and systems, for a broad range of applications and operating frequencies covering the radiofrequency (RF) spectrum, through the microwave region, and up to the optical region. In this contribution, examples of recent achievements in new nanotechnology-based radio-frequency devices and systems are presented. This is done, in particular, by focusing the areas of carbon-based and terahertz nanoelectronics