Communications of the ACM
How to Build a Nanotube Computer
A carbon source is burned with an electric arc, yielding a sooty powder; about one-fourth of the resulting material is made up of carbon nanotubes, tube-shaped molecules of carbon atoms.
Credit: Technology Review
IBM researchers have assembled 10,000 carbon nanotube transistors on a silicon chip, which they say is a breakthrough that could lead to a new way of producing smaller, faster, and more efficient computers.
Previous IBM research has shown that nanotube transistors can run chips three times faster than silicon transistors while using just a third of the power.
Although the nanotube transistors are small enough for chip makers to significantly increase the transistor density on silicon chips, controlling their placement in useful arrays is the next major research challenge. The IBM researchers are etching tiny trenches on silicon and using a multi-step process to precisely align semiconducting nanotubes in them; the researchers then add metal contacts to test the nanotubes' performance.
In the samples the researchers have created so far, the nanotube transistors are about 150 nanometers apart, but they will have to get closer if the technology is to be more effective than conventional silicon transistors.
The researchers also must develop a method to generate ultrapure supplies of semiconducting carbon nanotubes so that only a very small percentage will fail or short out.
From Technology Review
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