UCL in bid to create new generation of "green" electronics

UCL scientists are seeking new links with Peking University (PKU) to create a new generation of "green" electronic devices that use nanotechnology to reduce the energy needed to generate their power. The work could also help usher in the dawn of quantum computers, which operate on a far smaller scale than hitherto possible but which would be capable of massively increasing scientists' ability to analyse data such as the human genome or searching the skies for new stars or cosmic events. The research is being led by Dr Neil Curson, a senior lecturer at UCL's London Centre for Nanotechnology, who wants to establish a Europe-Asia Consortium to develop low power electronics. In the relentless drive to make electronics faster and cheaper, components have shrunk by a factor of two every 18 months over the decades since the first transistors came into general use in computers in the mid-1950s. This miniaturisation has, however, been accompanied by a corresponding increase in power consumption by electronics firms at a time when the world needs to reduce power generation in the battle to combat climate change. Traditionally computers have used transistors to generate the binary code that is critical to their ability to carry out calculations and analyse data. What Dr Curson and his team are doing is to replace transistors by using "dopant" atoms themselves to generate a quantum version of this binary code.