|
IBM researchers built a complete electronic circuit around a single-walled carbon nanotube – an object which is 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. This is the first complex integrated circuit implementation that is entirely done on a single molecule.
Depending on the synthesis process, a single-walled carbon nanotube has a diameter in the range of nanometers. This extremely small size naturally lends itself to the miniaturization goal of current semiconductor industry. Also, owing to the small nanotube diameter, carbon nanotubes are found to possess unique physical properties that are beneficial for high speed and low power electronics applications.
Once properly wired-up, the individual carbon nanotube functions as an entire circuit - a molecular ring oscillator. The monitored output signal is of ac type while the input uses a low power dc voltage. The architecture that has been employed makes use of the unique carbon nanotube properties while it ensures at the same time compatibility with well established circuit concepts.
Caption: The bottom picture shows a size comparison between the completed carbon nanotube circuit and a human hair. The pictures on the right are magnifications of the same structure with the upper most showing the actual carbon nanotube covered by the contact and gate electrodes. [ Magnified Image ] |
Last updated 24 Mar 2006
|
