The Era of Carbon

          Now we have reached the maximum limit and usage of semiconductor material to make computer chips. The world of electronics are changing rapidly and each changes brings us a new invention and smaller device. If you compared the past 50 years, one megabyte(1 MB) storage is about  the saiz of the refrigerator you are having now at home but now we have almost 5 Terabytes storage (1 TB= 1,000,000 x 1 MB) device for just the saiz of our hand. And now the era of semiconductor have reached the saturated condition and need a new invention to replace semiconductor to support the people's demand.  

          Researchers, including an Indian origin scientist, have developed a new technique to mass produce dramatically smaller and faster carbon nanotubes that can replace silicon chips in computers.  A carbon 'chip' with more than ten thousand working transistors and made of nano-sized tubes could replace silicon in computer chips to create smaller, faster circuits. "These carbon devices are poised to replace and outperform silicon technology allowing further miniaturization of computing components and leading the way for future microelectronics," IBM researchers said.
 

          Just imagine that with this technology, you can use a mini laptop with i100 Core intel processor simply to replace our Intel i7 core processor. Experts believe that the future may be carbon nanotubes, as electrons in carbon transistors can move easier than in silicon-based devices allowing for quicker transport of data.The nanotubes are also ideally shaped for transistors at the atomic scale, an advantage over silicon according to IBM's team.
           Further more, The IBM researchers today revealed they are able to fabricate more than ten thousand transistors on a single chip.

'As this new placement technique can be readily implemented, involving common chemicals and existing semiconductor fabrication, it will allow the industry to work with carbon nanotubes at a greater scale and deliver further innovation for carbon electronics,' the team said. the carbon material is called Graphene. 

Source

1. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/soon-carbon-nanotubes-to-replace-silicon-in-computer-chips/1024102/
2. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9232997/IBM_moving_to_replace_silicon_with_carbon_nanotubes_in_computer_chips