IBM Is Using Tiny Tubes to Grow the Chips of the Future

The reign of silicon may be coming to an end. For years, researchers and entrepreneurs hoped that carbon nanotubes would revolutionize microchip design. These tiny, molecular-level structures could, in theory, be used to make chips that are six to ten times faster than today’s silicon-based variety—and use far less electricity.

In addition to faster, more efficient chips for laptops and smartphones, tiny but powerful processors could enable new types of technology, such as bendable computers and injectable microchips, or nano-machines that could target cancers in the body.

Researchers from IBM have figured out a way to “coax” the nanotubes into specific structures using chemistry. Instead of a “top-down” approach of trying to place each block manually, the team is treating the nanotubes with chemicals that cause them to assemble themselves into new structures. It’s a bit more like growing a crystal than carving a statue.

But the IBM Research team is still years away from being able to manufacture nanotube-based chips at scale. And because silicon chips are still getting faster, the IBM team needs to not only create a process for reliably manufacturing nanotube-based processors, but to make the processors faster than silicon chips will be in a decade.

Read more at Wired

Image Credit: IBM Research

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