Carbon Nanotubes Could Turn Smartphones into Supercomputers

Carbon Nanotubes

Researchers are developing a new generation of computers with processors based on carbon nanotubes or CNTs. CNT processors and memory stacked in layers on chips might put supercomputer power into a smartphone in the future.

With support from the National Science Foundation electrical engineer H.S. Philip Wong, and computer scientist, Subhasish Mitra, at Stanford University are working with IBM to develop a new generation of computers with processors made from tiny carbon nanotubes 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.

In a few years carbon nanotube-based processors could begin to replace bulky silicon chips and bring Moore's Law into a new paradigm.

"Today we have incredible computing that has changed our lives," states Mitra, "But to be able to do more so we need massive amount of performance. For example what today runs on a supercomputer, we should be able to run on a cell phone."

So far the researchers carbon nanotube chip has rather modest functionality. It runs a robotic arm that shakes hands. But this was a big advance, years in the making. The Stanford team had to overcome some big design and device fabrication hurdles to get this far.

Even though it may be the perfect material to make the perfect transistor, the engineering challenge of producing carbon nanotubes on a large scale with billions and billions of transistors on the same chip or even in multiple layers of the chip is a great challenge.

Developing a multi-layered chip carbon nanotube transistors and memory devices stacked one on top of the other is the ultimate aim for the researchers.

According to Wong, "Today silicon chips are two-dimensional, just like in a landscape you have
houses and then your street and so on, what do people in big cities do? They build high-rises."

"The fact of the matter is, if you don't work on it, if you don't put effort into it, this is not going to happen."

Today, much of our global economy runs on the expectation that computers will continue to get faster
devices smaller and costs will keep going down. "The fact of the matter is, if you don't work on it, if you don't put effort into it, this is not going to happen," states Wong.

Wong sees this high-rise architecture as a gateway to vast improvements in computing speed and performance. "You can look forward into the future I would say you ain't seen nothing yet!"