CNFET Rivals Silicon Performance

Baldrson writes "Applied Physics Letters is carrying a paper on a CNFET (carbon nanotube field-effect transistors) advance that now rivals silicon performance for both n and p type devices. There is also a New York Times article in which it is reported that "it would be two to three more years before I.B.M. was ready to work on prototypes of future nanotube chips and as many as 10 years before they would be commercially available". This is may be what's at the end of the road for CMOS."

That was a fast repeat...

[peter_gzowski]

Come on! The story this repeats is still on the front page! Strangely it's under a different topic...

Re:Exciting times

[inkfox]

This story also seems like the perfect place to clarify Moore's Law. Please forgive the long post, but I'd love to see this properly understood...

From Jargon File (4.3.0, 30 APR 2001) [jargon]:

Moore's Law /morz law/ prov. The observation that the logic density of silicon integrated circuits has closely followed the curve (bits per square inch) = 2^(t - 1962) where t is time in years; that is, the amount of information storable on a given amount of silicon has roughly doubled every year since the technology was invented. This relation, first uttered in 1964 by semiconductor engineer Gordon Moore (who co-founded Intel four years later) held until the late 1970s, at which point the doubling period slowed to 18 months. The doubling period remained at that value through time of writing (late 1999). Moore's Law is apparently self-fulfilling. The implication is that somebody, somewhere is going to be able to build a better chip than you if you rest on your laurels, so you'd better start pushing hard on the problem.

See also {Parkinson's Law of Data} and {Gates's Law}.

Note that Moore's law deals with density, not performance. Note, however, that Moore did later comment that if his prediction (Moore's Law) continued to be true, computing power would rise exponentially over time, but this was a seperate observation, not a part of the original prediction.

Re: Single wall carbon nanotube practical issues.

[sunspot55]

The Oxidation I can not see as a big problem.... as far as Silicon goes, not to many people realize it, but Si oxidizes on contact with air thus becoming an insulator SiO2. Silicon chips are never allowed the chance to contact air with the way they are sealed/packaged. This helps to seal out oxygen, water and Sodium, some of the most notorious Si contaminants. I don't think it will be a big problem for them to extend the process to nanotubes. I admit my expertese isn't in nanotubes, though I have worked with them in the lab as field emitters.