Progress toward incorporating molecules as the active components in electronic circuitry has advanced rapidly over the past five years. Caltech professor James Heath describes the progress as “real and rapid” in the Dec. 17 issue of the journal Science.

“We have published 64-bit random access memory circuits using bistable rotaxane molecules as the memory elements, and we are in the process of fabricating a 16-kilobit memory circuit at a density of devices that far exceeds current technology,” Heath said. “On a Moore’s Law graph, our memory circuit is at a density of Intel-like circuits that will be manufactured decades from now.”

UCLA news release