Carbon Nanotubes to Replace Silicon in Computer Chips

A new technique to produce Carbon Nanotubes massively have developed by a group of researchers at IBM including one Indian. The previous experimental results from IBM researches indicated that Carbon Nanotube Transistors can offer better performance over Silicon at sub 10 nm lengths. The team also revealed that they have developed a Carbon Chip made using Nano-sized tubes of carbon with more than 10,000 transistors.

Carbon Nanotubes are formed by rolling single atomic sheets of carbon in the form of a tube as shown below.

Carbon Nanotubes will work similar to current Silicon Transistor with more performance and small size. It can be used to replace Silicon Transistors in high end smart phones, super computers and servers etc. Electrons in Carbon transistors can move faster than Silicon Transistors which increases the speed of data transfer.

IBM said that the Carbon Nanotube devices will pave a way for future microelectronics by replacing the today’s Silicon Technology with smaller size and higher performance.

Director of Physical Sciences at IBM Research, Mrs. Supratik Guha said that they are attempting to make first footprint in the field of Carbon Nanotube technology by fabricating Carbon Nanotube transistors by using conventional wafer fabrication facilities.

We can hope that the new Carbon Nanotube technology will make the future electronics smaller and powerful by keeping the pace of Moore’s Law.