Communications of the ACM
Smaller Chips May Depend on Vacuum Tube Technology
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology think the future of scaling may be based on a resurgence of vacuum tubes.
Credit: parts-express.com
Vacuum tubes may enjoy a resurgence as computer chips continue to shrink, and researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are laying the technological groundwork for the future of scaling using this concept.
Caltech Nanofabrication Group director Axel Scherer and students have built circuits that operate like vacuum tubes but are one-millionth their normal size. They have invented a minuscule tube composed from metal, which can turn on and off the flow of electrons between four smaller probes.
The switches use quantum tunneling to switch the flow on and off without any electron leakage, and Scherer thinks this phenomenon could enable modern vacuum tube circuits to consume less power and function faster than chips with transistors.
"Effects that are currently problems in scaling are precisely those that we would like to use for switching in these next-generation devices," Scherer says.
He notes unlike silicon, which is a semiconductor, his tubes can be made from a wide spectrum of conducting materials such as gold, platinum, tungsten, and molybdenum, which will serve to streamline the switches at the atomic level.
Scherer doubts the tubes will immediately dethrone transistors, but Boeing is funding his research because of their potential use in space and aviation.
From The New York Times
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