AN INTRODUCTION TO NANOCOMPUTING - Bio-Inspired and Nanoscale Integrated Computing - page 4

1000 nm

400 700 nm

Wavelength of
visible light

−

100 300 nm

Typical virus

−

Human hair
(50,000 nm)

45 − 120 nm
Modem CMOS
fabrication process

100 nm

700x

2 100 nm

Quantum dot

−

3 − 15 nm
A protein

10 nm Virus

2 10 nm

Diameter of a
carbon nanotube

−

100x

2 nm
Thickness of a
DNA strand

1 nm

DNA strand

0.01 10 nm

Wavelength of
X

−

10x

rays

−

0.1 nm

0.1 nm
Hydrogen atom

Hydrogen atom
(computer
visualization)

Less than 0.1 nm
Wavelength of an
electron

0.01 nm

Figure 1.1. Left: Size of various objects, measured on a logarithmic scale. Right:
Visual depiction of some of these objects, to compare relative size. Permissions
obtained for the DNA strand from CalTech. The human hair and the virus pictures
were taken from the Wikipedia public domain.