 he inventor of the IC picked up his Nobel Prize in Physics in December, sharing it with the inventor of heterostructures, the basis for today's lasers used in communications. At the same time the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists who developed the plastic that conducts electricity like a metal, allowing for carbon-based electronics. For the past 40 years EEs have made good use of that seminal work only recognized by the Nobel committee in 2000.
So what's next? The biochips era, the nanotechnology age, or the quantum computing decade? Electronics is starting to cross-fertilize with the life sciences. A new 'age of imagination' if it can be conceived, it can be built is upon us. The changing collaborative design environments for systems-on-a-chip, the pushing of the envelope of Moore's Law in silicon, and the application of optics in everyday networks is just the start. Below are 18 stories that span the near-term to far-reaching future of engineering.
-Nicolas Mokhoff
Editor, Special Issues
|
RSS
RSS| 
Digital| 
Mobile
