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IBM Milestone Advances Effort to Enhance Semiconductors Through
Nanotechnology
IBM wetenschappers hebben een belangrijke stap gezet naar een
succesvolle huwelijk tussen conventionele halfgeleiders en koolstof
nanotube technologie.
Voor zo'n 50 jaar heeft de halfgeleiderindustrie circuits verkleint om
chips sneller en minder kostbaar te maken. Niettemin, is de
verwachting dat deze conventionele silicium circuit in de volgende 10
tot 15 jaar fundamentele beperkingen zullen treffen _ als er geen
alternatieven worden gevonden zal deze industrie stil komen te staan.
Één alternatief is de koolstof nanotube, een nieuwe molecule die goede
belofte toont voor de bouw van elektrocomponenten en circuits.
Maar het aantonen van de haalbaarheid van deze nanotubes technologie
is geen gemakkelijke taak. IBM wetenschappers hebben hierin een
belangrijke stap gemaakt. Zij hebben de eerste complete chip circuit
gebouwd met één enkele koolstof nanotube, deze is 50.000 keer dunner
dan een menselijk haar, zoals te lezen valt in het volgende
persbericht.
Press Release: IBM Milestone Advances Effort to Enhance Semiconductors
Through Nanotechnology
Amsterdam - Mar 24, 2006 IBM today announced that its researchers have
built the first complete electronic integrated circuit around a single
"carbon nanotube" molecule, a new material that shows promise for
providing enhanced performance over today's standard silicon
semiconductors.
The achievement is significant because the circuit was built using
standard semiconductor processes and used a single molecule as the
base for all components in the circuit, rather than linking together
individually-constructed components. This can simplify manufacturing
and provide the consistency needed to more thoroughly test and adjust
the material for use in these applications.
The work was reported in an IBM paper appearing in today's issue of
the journal Science.
"Carbon nanotube transistors have the potential to outperform
state-of-the-art silicon devices," said Dr. T.C. Chen, vice president,
Science & Technology, IBM Research. "However, scientists have focused
so far on fabricating and optimizing individual carbon nanotube
transistors. Now, we can evaluate the potential of carbon nanotube
electronics in complete circuits -- a critical step toward the
integration of the technology with existing chip-making techniques."
For some fifty years the semiconductor industry has relied on the
ability to pack increasing numbers of electronic circuits on a single
silicon chip to make those chips more powerful. This was achieved
largely by finding ways to build circuits smaller. With scientists
seeing an end to that capability looming, the use of nanotechnology is
being explored as a means to keep the industry moving forward.
The field of nanotechnology involves the synthesis and assembly of new
types of molecules and structures with dimensions measured in
billionths of a meter. Looking like a microscopic roll of chicken
wire, carbon nanotubes measure 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.
Yet they have unique properties that may allow them to carry higher
current densities than the "pipes" currently used in today's
transistor and, with their smaller size, might allow for further
miniaturization.
The circuit built by the IBM team was a ring oscillator -- a circuit
chip makers typically build to evaluate new manufacturing processes or
materials. The circuit stresses certain properties that can give a
good indication of how new technologies will perform when used to
build complete chips.
By integrating the complete circuit around a single nanotube, the IBM
team observed circuit speeds nearly a million times faster than
previously demonstrated circuits with multiple nanotubes. While this
is still slower than the speeds obtained by today's silicon chips, the
IBM team believes that new nanofabrication processes will eventually
unlock the superior performance potential of carbon nanotube
electronics.
The IBM scientists will now use the ring oscillator to test improved
carbon nanotube transistors and circuits, and to gauge their
performance in complete chip designs.
The report on this work, "Integrated Logic Circuit Assembled on a
Single Carbon Nanotube", by Zhihong Chen, Joerg Appenzeller, Yu-Ming
Lin, Paul Solomon, and Phaedon Avouris of IBM's T. J. Watson Research
Center, Yorktown Heights, NY; Jennifer Sippel-Oakley and Andrew G.
Rinzler of the Department of Physics, University of Florida,
Gainesville, FL; and Jinyao Tang and Shalom J. Wind of the Department
of Chemistry and the Department of Applied Physics and Applied
Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY is published in the
March 24th issue of the journal Science.
This 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 uppermost showing the
actual carbon nanotube covered by the contact and gate electrodes.
This 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 uppermost showing the
actual carbon nanotube covered by the contact and gate electrodes.
About the IBM Research Division
IBM Research is the world's largest information technology research
organization, with about 3,000 scientists and engineers in eight labs
in six countries. IBM has produced more research breakthroughs than
any other company in the IT industry.
For more information on IBM Research, visit
http://www.research.ibm.com.
Voor meer informatie kunt u contact opnemen met:
Ellis Zijlstra
IBM Corporate Communications
Tel: 06-53240768
E-mail: ellis_zijlstra@nl.ibm.com