Heisenberg Molecular Overdrive

[frets]

Have you folks heard of this? It’s fascinating. If you have discussed this, I apologize for being redundant.
nrc.canada.ca/en/stories/nanotechnology-breakthrough-rocks-molecular-electronics

And a video on Quantum Clipping

[Deleted]

im not sure what the sim car docking bays for !!!

[thetragichero]

that link reads like a press release
not dogging on trying something new instead of YATS and/or diodes to ground

[blademaster2]

Hmmm - it sounds like he is describing a simple diode-clipped op amp circuit. Not exactly a breakthrough.

I am pretty sure this is intended to be humour. Maybe that is obvious to everyone else, but I did listen to get a sense of anything truly real, and I never got anything.

[ashcatlt]

Can’t seem to find it, but I swear this came through diystompboxes forum a while back. I think we decided it’s just a kind of cool way to make diodes. Like the underlying tech is pretty cool, but in the end it’s a diode and you use it like a diode and it acts like a diode.

[thetragichero]

probably a lot more expensive than a buck for like a gross of them though, eh?

[blademaster2]

I still think it is humour. Something like this:



or this:





Just imagine hooking up that Rockwell Retro Encabulator to your Marshall stack! Awesome!

Especially if the speaker cone was made from Prefamulated Amulite

[sumgai]

I believe that the advent of a slow-breaking diode is non-trivial. While speed counts in many applications (I mean, a very quick change over from one voltage level to another), there are times when a human-speed changeover would be nice.

Consider this component as a corollary of the slow-blow fuse compared to the regular circuit breaker - there are times when one or the other of them is better suited to the designer's intent and purpose. Same thing here. The fact that a distortion simulator seems to be the first real-world product is a bit of a stretch, I agree, but the nice man did say "The owner of the business plays guitar", that's a good enough reason for me.

sumgai

[frets]

Molecular Junctions represent a major technological breakthrough that will comprehensively and dramatically revolutionize electronics. The pedal is just an example. It’s coming... When? Who knows?
“The progress that has been made in understanding the mechanisms of molecular junction transport and the challenges and future directions in exploring charge transport on the molecular scale is rapidly expanding. In spite of the substantial challenges, molecular charge transport is of great interest for its intrinsic importance to potential single-molecule electronic, thin-film electronic, and optoelectronic applications. Eventually, it will be the natural evolution of electronics.”
- Dr. Cherie Kagan

[blademaster2]

Dec 23, 2019 0:54:28 GMT -5 sumgai said:

I believe that the advent of a slow-breaking diode is non-trivial. While speed counts in many applications (I mean, a very quick change over from one voltage level to another), there are times when a human-speed changeover would be nice.

Consider this component as a corollary of the slow-blow fuse compared to the regular circuit breaker - there are times when one or the other of them is better suited to the designer's intent and purpose. Same thing here. The fact that a distortion simulator seems to be the first real-world product is a bit of a stretch, I agree, but the nice man did say "The owner of the business plays guitar", that's a good enough reason for me.

sumgai

I have slowed the diode response using series resistors with diodes in the feedback path of an op amp (this was for a Wien Bridge Oscillator so it would produce a more pure sinusoidal output with fewer harmonics, but the basic principle still applies).

Aren't semiconductor P-N junctions *all* molecular?

To me this still sounds like snake oil intended to be comedy (or worse, a marketing ploy to sell a diode-clipped op amp distortion unit with a softened clipping response as if it is a new invention), but I am perfectly willing to be re-educated on it if I have missed something new in device physics. I can ask my university professor colleagues to see if they are aware of any such breakthrough in devices.