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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

IBM has made progress [hpcwire.com] towards the creation of usable carbon nanotube transistors:

IBM Research reported in a paper in Science today a technique for making carbon nanotube transistors with tiny (~9nm) contacts that exhibit low, size-independent resistance. This overcomes a huge hurdle in shrinking transistor size beyond current limits. "I think this is the first carbon nanotube transistor demonstration with such a small, low resistance contact," said Shu-Jen Han, manager of the Nanoscale Science & Technology Group at IBM Research and an author on the paper (End-bonded contacts for carbon nanotube transistors with low, size-independent resistance [sciencemag.org]).

[...] Earlier this summer, IBM unveiled the first 7 nanometer node silicon test chip [hpcwire.com], pushing the limits of silicon technologies and ensuring further innovations for IBM Systems and the IT industry. By advancing research of carbon nanotubes to replace traditional silicon, IBM is hoping to pave the way for a post-silicon future and delivering on its $3 billion chip R&D investment [ibm.com] announced in July 2014.

[...] "This is an important advance but there are many other challenges to be solved such as how to purify the nanotubes, how to place them properly, and we also made good progress there but when we are talking about new technology so many things have to be right. People tend to divide the technology into two parts, materials and the device. Solving the contact size is probably top challenge on the device side. There are still a bunch of issues on the materials side," said Han.

Indeed the paper points out, "We have only demonstrated p-channel SWNT transistors using p-type end contacts. It will be difficult to form end-bonded n-type contacts to SWNTs in which electrons are directly injected into the conduction band of SWNTs with this carbide formation approach as metals with low enough work function tend to oxidize first rather than react with C. However, it is still possible to realize n-channel SWNT device operation even with end-bonded contacts to high work function metals through electrostatic doping in the vicinity of the source electrode."

Also reported at The Register [theregister.co.uk], MIT Technology Review [technologyreview.com], Wired [wired.com], and NYT [nytimes.com].

Previously: IBM and Partners Develop 7nm Process Chips [soylentnews.org]

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