The carbon nanotube is rightly made for semiconductor manufacturers who look to not only compact semiconductors but improve chip efficacy as well.
FREMONT, CA: The semiconductor industry has experienced massive transformation in the past few years. Advancements in technology, along with the emergence of new semiconductor materials, are driving the future trends in the semiconductor world. Carbon nanotubes are one of the many evolutions that can transform the semiconductor world. While carbon nanotubes seem to promise next-generation electronics, its applications have remained limited due to the disconnect between the technology and the ability to build a real working system. With the emergence of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the practical applications of carbon nanotubes will move towards realization.
According to Popular Mechanics, carbon nanotubes are lightweight, sturdy, as well as most relevant to material scientists, making them near-perfect semiconductors. Carbon nanotubes have also gained traction owing to their small size, which can be as small as a couple of atoms. Such constrained size makes them ideal for a compact semiconductor that can contribute to the making of smaller and smaller transistors in microprocessors, and even more powerful computers. Further, the compact size of nanotubes will enable the manufacturers to integrate them with silicon components, thereby enhancing speeds and offsetting the size of the chips.
Carbon nanotubes can also be led into superconducting states at lower temperatures, turning them more energy-efficient than silicon. The potential of carbon nanotubes reaches beyond computing. Apart from contributing to smaller scale computing components, metallic nanotubes can also replace copper in certain applications that require a powerful conductor. Nanotubes can also be integrated into lithium-ion batteries, which currently depend on graphite and graphene. In some cases, nanotubes have shown to double the storage capacity of batteries.
Increasingly manufacturers are leveraging carbon nanotubes to address the performance and size requirements pertaining to semiconductor applications.