Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by CoolHand on Wednesday November 11 2015, @01:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the all-nanotubes-all-the-time dept.

The interplay of size and time may make carbon nanotubes the answer to the computer industry's prayers as it grapples with pressure to make silicon chips ever-smaller. Or the same factors may turn CNTs into a technological dead end.

Size refers to the dimensions of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) vs. the shrinking geometry of the components on today's silicon chips. A CNT is basically a tube whose wall is 1 carbon atom thick. The tube itself is 1 nanometer (nm, or one billionths of a meter, or one-thousandths of a micron) in diameter, although it can be tens of microns long. Although made of carbon, single-wall CNTs are excellent conductors thanks to quantum conductance, which allows electrons to propagate along the length of the tubes.

Time refers to the progression of Moore's Law, an observation by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of components on a chip can be expected to double every two years, without an increase in price. According to that, about more eight years from now silicon technology, which has reached 14nm geometry, will reach the atomic level. At that time, presumably the industry will no longer be able to uphold Moore's Law by making silicon components continually smaller.

Will CNTs, with their 1nm geometry, be ready by then?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday November 11 2015, @06:52PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday November 11 2015, @06:52PM (#261860)

    Well, high-temperature superconductors or thermally conductive semiconductors. That's one of the reason diamond-based semiconductors hold so much potential - diamond is an extremely good thermal conductor (about 3x better than copper), while also being an extremely good electrical insulator. Plus we know how to perform both N- and P-doping on it to produce efficient semiconductors. A rare combination of properties.

    At this point we know how to mass-produce it in flawless slabs (even the best natural diamonds contain far too many flaws to consider as a substrate, even if they weren't tiny). It's just a matter of waiting for the current "seeds" to be grown to sufficient size that they can start slicing off slabs suitable for manufacturing, or developing new, faster methods of producing flawless diamond. I think it's carbon-vapor deposition being used by the current forerunners, (the makers of "cultured" diamonds) and if I recall correctly their slab size only increases by a few percent per year, with each new layer being just slightly larger than the last.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2