YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.J.-Scientists for IBM Corp. announced they have reached a scientific breakthrough that could lead to the mass production of computer chips that could be as much as 500 times smaller than today’s silicon-based chips.
Current wireless technology-and the rest of electronics industry-is made from silicon-based transistors. While the size of these chips has continued to shrink for the past three decades, chipmakers believe there will come a time when chips cannot be made smaller.
To overcome this obstacle, scientific research during the past few years has focused on designing transistors at the molecular level. If the research is refined, the electronics industry would be revolutionized, and the wireless industry would see monumental leaps in the processing power of smaller and smaller devices.
The announcement from IBM’s scientists involves carbon nanotubes, which are tiny cylinders of carbon atoms that are as small as 10 atoms across. They are 500 times smaller than today’s transistors. The scientists said they found a new way to design large numbers of these nanotube transistors by creating a framework for the nanotubes and then destroying the framework. Previously, nanotubes has to be positioned one at a time-a tiring task for companies looking to mass-produce electronic devices.
“This is a major step forward in our pursuit to build molecular-scale electronic devices,” said Phaedon Avouris, lead researcher on the project and manager of IBM’s Nanoscale Science Research Department. “Our studies prove that carbon nanotubes can compete with silicon in terms of performance, and since they may allow transistors to be made much smaller, they are promising candidates for a future nanoelectronic technology. This new process gives us a practical way of making nanotube transistors, which is essential for future mass production.”
Most importantly for the wireless industry, the new transistor technology would make a class of smaller, faster and-most notably-lower-power computer chips. Wireless devices and technologies now are limited in all three areas.
The research is being published today in the prestigious research journal, Science.
