1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrically active particle having a virus with bound nanoparticles and molecular wires.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Improvements in the speed and power of modern computers are produced mostly through increasing the number of available transistors in an integrated circuit. Although Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors that can be fabricated on a silicon integrated circuit will double every 18 to 24 months, has been valid for the past 40 years, eventually the feature size of the transistors will small enough that quantum effects will prevent their operation. One possible alternative to traditional silicon-based technology is to use functional molecules as the building blocks of electronic devices. Instead of carving smaller and smaller patterns into silicon wafers, this bottom-up approach uses different types of molecules with functions such as wires, switches, and diodes, to build electronic circuits, and thus increasing the theoretical device density by up to 6 orders of magnitude.
Although a large number of molecules have been synthesized for their electronic properties, the problem remains in connecting these active molecules in such a way as to build logic circuits and functional electronic devices. Two of the approaches are (1) a crosswire device in which the electronically addressable molecules are sandwiched between the junction and (2) an array of containers with input and output pins on opposing sides with the molecules of interest bridging the two sets of pins.