Silicon's successor lurks in the lab
Published: 20 Oct 2003 16:05 BST
Such confined dimensionality means that nanotubes can conduct heat better than any other material ever discovered, including diamonds, and could even be used to transfer energy in homes or between power stations. Tubes can also be used to carry light, enhancing or replacing optical fibre.
In chips, nanotubes could lead to transistors that switch off and on much faster than today's silicon variety.
Appenzeller said it is impractical to compare their performance to silicon transistors because researchers have only tested how single nanotubes work. Still, the early results are very promising, he noted, and the same basic transistor structure can be used.
"You just replace, ideally, hypothetically, the access device with a nanotube. The source, the drain, the architecture is the same," Appenzeller said. One-dimensional objects can be formed from other materials, such as boron nitride, but carbon has been studied the most so far.
While nearly everyone agrees that carbon won't likely appear in chips or fiber for several years, other products in the near term are likely to take advantage of nanotubes' electrical properties.
Several companies are looking at ways to use nanotubes in TVs, liquid crystal display monitors and plasma screens for 2005. In traditional TV sets, electron guns shoot electrons at the screen, which must be 18 inches away. LCDs and plasma screens don't require electron guns, but the manufacturing process required to implant the glass with circuitry costs billions.
Nanotube monitors would be thinner than LCDs and far cheaper to make. The tubes can be mixed into a paste and printed onto glass. Hyperspecialised facilities wouldn't be needed.
"It is amazingly simple," Pitstick said. "You put nanotubes in ink and print them down."
Previous
Did you find this article useful?
393 out of 749 people found this useful
Digg
Slashdot
Del.ici.ous
Stumble
Reddit
Full Talkback thread
1 comment
-
your efforts are appriciated to provide thew usefu... Moazzam Ali Kausar
