This is ephemeralization in extremis. Quantum Devices contain layers of electronic and optical materials which are only one or two atoms thick. Such layers are so thin that electrons can then only move in the plane of the material. This permits the programming into a compound of specific electronic characteristics.
Beyond this will be strictly one-dimensional wires and even zero-dimensional dots, which would be tantamount to custom-designed atoms.
Such devices may make possible a supercomputer on a chip.
Another aim is the development of lasers on this scale, in conjuction with fibre-optics, to produce opto-electronic circuits. (This was heralded in Scientific American, Nov. 1990)
© Paul Taylor 2001