We propose an InAs/GaSb/AlSb-based asymmetric resonant interband tunneling diode (a-RITD) as a spin filter. The device exploits the Rashba effect to achieve spin polarization under zero magnetic field using nonmagnetic III-V semiconductor heterostructures. We discuss the basic principles of the interband tunneling spin filter, and present modeling results that demonstrate its advantage. We also propose an implementation procedure for realizing device structure.

In reviewing the predictions by G.K. Teal for 2012, I am struck most by the accuracy of his vision. The year 1962 was at the very beginning of the electronics revolution. Silicon integrated circuits were but a gleam in the eyes of a select few, yet Teal saw clearly that modern electronics would be based, fundamentally and pervasively, on "tailor-making materials starting at the atomic level". Personally, I believe that the development of new materials and novel structures is going to be as important to the evolution of electronics over the next 15 years as it has in the past 35 years.

The vector-matrix multiplier is the engine of many artificial neural network implementations because it can simulate the way in which neurons collect weighted input signals from a dendritic arbor. A new technology for building analog weighting elements that is theoretically capable of densities and speeds far beyond anything that conventional VLSI in silicon could ever offer is presented. To illustrate the feasibility of such a technology, a small three-layer feedforward prototype network with five binary neurons and six tri-state synapses was built and used to perform all of the fundamental logic functions: XOR, AND, OR, and NOT.