The silicon industry has already introduced new materials such as Hafniumcarbon nanotube site:freerepublic.com
Posted on 12/06/2007 10:57:44 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Already new materials are creeping into modern chips. As components have shrunk critical elements of the transistors, known as gate dielectrics, do not perform as well allowing currents passing through the transistors to leak, reducing the effectiveness of the chip. To overcome this, companies have replaced the gate dielectrics, previously made from silicon dioxide, with an oxide based on the metal hafnium. The material's development and integration into working components has been described by Dr Moore as "the biggest change in transistor technology" since the late 1960s. But IBM researchers are working on materials that they believe offer even bigger advances. "Carbon nanotubes are a step beyond [hafnium]," explained Dr Phaedon Avouris of the company... "They are a more drastic change but still preserve the basic architecture of field effect transistors." ...Dr Avouris believes they can be used to replace a critical element of the chip, known as the channel... Crucially, he also believes the molecules can be integrated with traditional silicon manufacturing processes, meaning the technology would more likely be accepted by an industry that has spent billions perfecting manufacturing techniques... Professor Williams, at Hewlett Packard is also working on technology that could be incorporated into the future generations of chips. As well as exploring optical computing - using particles of light instead of electrons to significantly increase the speed of today's computers - he is building new electronic components for chips called memristors... Professor Williams and his team have shown that by putting two of these devices together - a configuration called a crossbar latch - it could do the job of a transistor... Crucially, these devices can also be made much smaller than a transistor. "And as they get smaller they get better," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
The silicon industry has already introduced new materials such as Hafniumcarbon nanotube site:freerepublic.com
California Inventors DevelopThomas W. Tombler of Goleta, Calif., and Brian Y. Lim of Simi Valley, Calif., have developed a method of making a transistor device.
Carbon Nanotube Transistor
Device Fabrication Method
US Fed News
December 3, 2007
According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "During fabrication of single-walled carbon nanotube transistor devices, a porous template with numerous parallel pores is used to hold the single-walled carbon nanotubes. The porous template or porous structure may be anodized aluminum oxide or another material. A gate region may be provided one end or both ends of the porous structure."
An abstract of the invention, released by the Patent Office, said: "The gate electrode may be formed and extend into the porous structure. A transistor of the invention may be especially suited for power transistor or power amplifier applications."
The inventors were issued U.S. Patent No. 7,301,191 on Nov. 27.
The patent has been assigned to Atomate Corp., Simi Valley.
The original application was filed on Aug. 22, 2006, and is available here.
New Flexible, TransparentRecently, researchers from Hanyang University in Seoul have constructed a thin film transistor made of networked single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on a glass substrate. While it's not the first thin film transistor made of SWNTs, it has the advantage of allowing a high density of SWNTs to be grown under lower temperatures than normally required.
Transistors made of Nanotubes
by Lisa Zyga
PhysOrg
Most significantly, the method shows that nanotubes can offer a practical choice for fabricating transparent, thin film electronics such as flat-panel displays and future opto-electronics devices.
...a constantly updated newspaper which can be rolled up and carried?Carbon nanotubes proveThe researchers discovered that if they took boron-doped carbon nanotubes, which provide good electrical and mechanical properties, and placed them on a transparent substrate, the result was a flexible electrical pathway that can be used to create electrodes. The researchers have used these electrodes to create a flexible light-emitting device. Both the anode and cathode are transparent which, even when repeatedly bent, twisted, rolled or folded completely over, continue to conduct electricity without losing any notable properties.
electrically flexible
on 89% transparent substrate
by Rick C. Hodgin
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Toshiba, NEC Electronics to team up on 32-nm chips
Reuters | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 | Mayumi Negishi
Posted on 12/06/2007 10:59:31 AM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1935636/posts
Sony Might Have Gotten It Right with the PS3 from the Beginning
Softpedia | November 5th, 2007 | Filip Truta
Posted on 11/25/2007 1:38:14 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1930299/posts
IBM Builds Nanotube Chip
Red Herring | 3/23/06
Posted on 03/24/2006 4:36:37 AM EST by Straight Vermonter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602197/posts
[snip] Creating carbon nanotube transistors has been done before, but figuring out a reliable way to assemble them to form an IC has stumped many bright minds. Wiring together transistors developed from a single carbon nanotube is an even more difficult task. But the IBM research team did it. With an 18-micron long carbon nanotube, the scientists built a 10-transistor ring oscillator, a device typically constructed to test new manufacturing technologies or materials. Using one instead of many carbon nanotubes to build an IC reduces the manufacturing steps and therefore cost. [end]
Altair Nanotechnologies Details
Power Features of Its Nano Titanate Battery
Nanotechwire.com | 9/15/2006 6:13:50 PM | Not Specified
Posted on 09/17/2006 2:46:42 PM EDT by PeaceBeWithYou
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1703139/posts
A Step Closer to Nanotube Computers
MIT Technology Review | Prachi Patel-Predd
Posted on 11/14/2006 11:25:38 PM EST by annie laurie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738777/posts
IBM announces nanotechnology achievements
UPI | 08/30/07
Posted on 08/30/2007 8:31:06 PM EDT by nypokerface
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889169/posts
Patents like this make me wonder if they actually got it to work or if they just thought of it in hopes someone else could get it to work so they could sue them. I’m wishing back to the old days when you actually had deliver a working device to the USPTO.
Not to sue, to license the technology. They are going to get rich (or so they hope), and it wouldn’t come as a surprise, sure there are plenty of bidders. :’)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1935654/posts?page=6#6
heh... heh... did ASA Vet put you up to this? ;’)
45nm Intel mobile chips coming on January 6 - Just in time for Macworld
Tech Report | 4:25 PM on December 5, 2007 | by Cyril Kowaliski
Posted on 12/06/2007 8:51:22 PM EST by Swordmaker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1935912/posts
Sony plans to sell ultra-thin OLED TVs this year
EETimes | Reuters | 4/12/07
Posted on 04/12/2007 12:55:36 PM EDT by LibWhacker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1816230/posts
Sony spinoff to demo prototype FED field-emission display
videsignline.com | 04/16/2007 | Yoshiko Hara
Posted on 05/06/2007 8:05:42 AM EDT by Las Vegas Dave
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1829135/posts
Sony develops film-thin, bending display
AP | 05/25/07 | YURI KAGEYAMA
Posted on 05/25/2007 8:11:28 PM EDT by nypokerface
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839964/posts
Move over, silicon: Advances pave wayThe electronics industry has pushed the capabilities of silicon -- the material at the heart of all computer chips -- to its limit, and one intriguing replacement has been carbon, said Stephen Chou, professor of electrical engineering. A material called graphene -- a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice -- could allow electronics to process information and produce radio transmissions 10 times better than silicon-based devices. Until now, however, switching from silicon to carbon has not been possible because technologists believed they needed graphene material in the same form as the silicon used to make chips... Chou and researchers in his lab realized that a big graphene wafer is not necessary, as long they could place small crystals of graphene only in the active areas of the chip. They developed a novel method to achieve this goal and demonstrated it by making high-performance working graphene transistors... "What we have done is shown that this approach is possible; the next step is to scale it up," Chou said.
for powerful carbon-based electronics
Source: Princeton University
PhysOrg
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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