Again its Chemistry coming for the RESCUE! | Blogs !!

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Again its Chemistry coming for the RESCUE!

Mon 21 Apr 2008 12:36:15 | 1 comments

Researchers in the University of Manchester have used the world's thinnest material, Graphene, to fabricate the world's smallest transistor. The newly created transistor is only one atom thick and ten atoms wide!.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. Its is the basic structural element of all other graphitic materials including graphite, and fullerenes. It is a large aromatic molecule, an extension of a family of flat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

We can hope that it will soon replace the custom Silicon wafer technology which is always under the shadow of the threatening Moore's Law!

Dr Kostya Novoselov and Professor Andre Geim show that graphene can be carved into tiny electronic transistor circuits with individual transistors having a size not much larger than that of a molecule. The inventors carved out nanometer-scale transistors from a single Graphene crystal. Unlike all other known materials for semiconductor fabrication like Si and GaAs, graphene remains highly stable and conductive even when it is cut into devices one nanometer wide. Graphene transistors start showing advantages and good performance at sizes below 10 nanometers - the miniaturization limit at which the Silicon technology is predicted to fail. (Science new issue)

The inventors carved out nanometer-scale transistors from a single Graphene crystal. Unlike all other known materials for semiconductor fabrication like Si and GaAs, graphene remains highly stable and conductive even when it is cut into devices one nanometer wide. Graphene transistors start showing advantages and good performance at sizes below 10 nanometers - the miniaturization limit at which the Silicon technology is predicted to fail. (Science new issue)

Scientists still use large molecules as individual transistors to create new kind of electronic circuits. But now one can think of specifically designed molecules acting as transistors connected into designer computer architecture on the basis of the same material (graphene), and use the same fabrication approach that is currently used by semiconductor industry.

However, they ruled out that it is too early to promise graphene supercomputers.