This paper presents a coin-cell powered small size wireless sensor node with a sensor bridge biased by an energy-efficient DC-DC converter. To reduce the switching noise of the DC-DC converter, a Wheatstone bridge with differentially balanced in wide resistance range is used. Circuit parameters, such as bridge resistances and amplifier offset are automatically set to the optimal values in the startup sequence. Proposed sensor interface achieved power reduction by 57.3% and intermittent operation further reduces the power consumption by 78.6% from which uses LDO. The developed tiny wireless sensor node with a nanoscale gas sensor device successfully demonstrated 100ppm hydrogen gas detection.

This special issue presents a variety of invited papers covering nanostructures and related materials proposed to extend CMOS scaling to its ultimate limit and enable a variety of new logic and memory devices.

This paper will outline some results obtained by an international working group on nanoelectronics, which collects data from major publicly funded programs in Europe, Japan, and the United States on long-term nanoelectronics research. It maps these programs and projects onto a set of research directions that are expected to drive nanoelectronics for the long term. The purpose is to identify those research topics attracting a lot of attention and those important topics that seem less attractive. This paper will give examples of interregional collaborative programs and identify sources of funding specifically provided to support international collaborations.

Single-electron transistors (SETs) show promise as future functional elements in LSIs, because of their low-power consumption and small size. However, the low driving strength and the oscillating Id-Vg characteristic of SETs make them difficult to use in LSIs as alternatives of conventionally used MOS transistors. As electronics becomes ubiquitous, LSIs are expected to be more widely used in ultra-small low-power electronic devices for various applications such as electronic tags, credit cards, and so on. This strong demand in new application domain leads to increased requirements against LSIs; high functionality, high security and low power-consumption are more strongly required for LSIs than ever. As a result, the change of target applications could offer an opportunity to "new" functional electronic devices such as SETs. This paper firstly gives a strategy for using SETs in conventional logic circuits in order to reduce power consumption. Then, new application domains where SETs could be used by making use of their characteristics, such as high-charge sensitivity and oscillating Id-Vg characteristics are discussed.