- Technique could soon replace silicon in computer chips
- Allows faster, smaller chips to be created
- Prototypes containing 10,000 transistors have already been built
By Mark Prigg
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Researchers at IBM have revealed a groundbreaking technique that could one day replace silicon in computer chips.
The team have developed a new technique to mass produce carbon nanotubes that could create dramatically smaller, faster chips.
For the first time, the team revealed they have created a carbon 'chip' with more than ten thousand working transistors made of nano-sized tubes of carbon, which have been precisely placed and tested in a single.
IBM researcher Hongsik Park with different solutions of carbon nanotubes, which IBM believe could replace silicon in computer chips.
WHAT IS A NANOTUBE?
Carbon nanotubes are single atomic sheets of carbon rolled up into a tube.
The carbon nanotube forms the core of a transistor device that will work in a fashion similar to the current silicon transistor, but will be better performing.
They could be used to replace the transistors in chips that power our data-crunching servers, high performing computers and ultra fast smart phones.
'These carbon devices are poised to replace and outperform silicon technology allowing further miniaturization of computing components and leading the way for future microelectronics, IBM said.
Aided by rapid innovation over four decades, silicon microprocessor technology has continually shrunk in size and improved in performance, thereby driving the information technology revolution.
However, their increasingly small dimensions, now reaching the nanoscale, have reached the limits of performance due to the nature of silicon and the laws of physics.
Expert believe that the future may be carbon nanotubes.
Electrons in carbon transistors can move easier than in silicon-based devices allowing for quicker transport of data.
The nanotubes are also ideally shaped for transistors at the atomic scale, an advantage over silicon according to IBM's team.
Single atom sheets of carbon can be rolled up to form nanotubes 10,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair, than can be used as transistors on a chip
The carbon nanotubes are mixed with a form of soap in the production process to make them soluble in water
IBM says its carbon nanotubes can replace silicon in computer chips to create smaller, faster circuits
'Carbon nanotubes, borne out of chemistry, have largely been laboratory curiosities as far as microelectronic applications are concerned,' said Supratik Guha, Director of Physical Sciences at IBM Research.
'We are attempting the first steps towards a technology by fabricating carbon nanotube transistors within a conventional wafer fabrication infrastructure.
'The motivation to work on carbon nanotube transistors is that at extremely small nanoscale dimensions, they outperform transistors made from any other material.
'However, there are challenges to address such as ultra high purity of the carbon nanotubes and deliberate placement at the nanoscale.
'We have been making significant strides in both.'
The approach developed at IBM labs paves the way for circuit fabrication with large numbers of carbon nanotube transistors at predetermined substrate positions.
HOW TO MAKE A CARBON NANOTUBE
The process starts with carbon nanotubes mixed with a surfactant, a kind of soap that makes them soluble in water.
A substrate is comprised of two oxides with trenches made of chemically-modified hafnium oxide (HfO2) and the rest of silicon oxide (SiO2).
The substrate gets immersed in the carbon nanotube solution and the carbon nanotubes attach via a chemical bond to the HfO2 regions while the rest of the surface remains clean.
The IBM researchers today revealed they are able to fabricate more than ten thousand transistors on a single chip.
'As this new placement technique can be readily implemented, involving common chemicals and existing semiconductor fabrication, it will allow the industry to work with carbon nanotubes at a greater scale and deliver further innovation for carbon electronics,' the team said.
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