Since the development of the transistor in the latter half of the 20th century, the trend in device development has always been to miniaturize functional structures starting from macroscopic materials.  Even at the finest limits of this approach the wave properties of matter have been ignored .  The 21st century will usher in the era of switches, gates and material waveguides and circuits starting from individual atoms; cooled, confined, and focused by miniature static and dynamic electromagnetic fields.  The de Broglie wavelength will replace the optical wavelength as the limit of spatial figure definition.  This talk will dicuss the basic physics, limitations, and potential developments of this regime below the optical diffraction limit.