CARBON NANOTUBE COMPUTER

Abstract

Many potential applications have been proposed for carbon nanotubes, including conductive and high-strength composites; energy storage and energy conversion devices; sensors; field emission displays and radiation sources; hydrogen storage media; and probes, and interconnects. Some of these applications are now realized in products. Others are demonstrated in early to advanced devices, and nanometer-sized semiconductor devices is one such application. Nanotube cost, polydispersity in nanotube type, and limitations in processing and assembly methods are important barriers for some applications of single-walled nanotubes. Problem is, carbon nanotubes aren't perfect either. They don't always grow in perfectly straight lines, and a fraction of the tubes grown aren't able to "switch off" like a regular transistor. The Stanford team used a technique of "burning" off some of the imperfect carbon nanotubes while also working their way around other imperfections by using a complex algorithm. They do not, for example, always grow in parallel lines, which has led researchers to devise techniques to grow 99.5 percent of CNTs in straight lines, according to the press release. But with billions of nanotubes on a chip, even a small misalignment of the tubes can cause errors. A fraction of the CNTs also behave like metallic wires that always conduct electricity, instead of acting like semiconductors that can be switched off. The final design consists of a very basic computer with 178 transistors that can do tasks like counting and number sorting and switch between functions. The rise of carbon nanotube computers in the future is for sure and the basic algorithm to prove this concept is illustrated in depth. CNTs are prominent among a variety of emerging technologies that are being considered for the next generation of highly energy efficient electronic systems.This may take some time to make this kind of computer designed by using nanotubes available for all but once it is developed it is going to lead to a new era in the world of computers.