Limits and possibilities of miniaturization

Abstract

Miniaturization has progressed exponentially over the past couple of decades, and there is no reason to believe that it should not continue to do so in the near future, say one to two decades. After that we can foresee two distinct periods of miniaturization. The first one will involve fundamentally new effects and phenomena, e.g. when the dimension becomes comparable to or smaller than characteristic length scales. In the second, when the scale of a few nanometers is reached, classical miniaturization or the division into ever smaller elements will come to an end. A possible scenario for this 'post-miniaturization' period is one of assemblies of functional elements into complex functional units. Miniaturization is, so to speak, superseded by complexity. This development is certainly a formidable scientific and technological challenge. The major issue, however, will be how society can and will cope with it.