CLICK TO SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

Starbulletin.com



Facts of the Matter

BY RICHARD BRILL



Nanotubes
hold the future


Back in the early 1990s the new technology buzz word was nanotechnology, the atom-by-atom building of tiny machines. Touted as the next major advance in medicine, visionaries imagined tiny robotic sweepers swimming through the human body seeking out invading organisms and cancerous cells.

As these particular medical nanotechnologies are being developed, another area of great promise has opened up, based on carbon. Carbon atoms can link together to form complex, long chain molecules and still have space for other types of atoms to stick to each carbon atom. This ability is unique among all chemical elements.

The renewed nano-excitement centers on a particular kind of carbon called fullerene. Fullerenes, also known as buckyballs (they're named after visionary architect Buckminster Fuller, creator of the geodesic dome), are geodesic bundles of carbon atoms arranged in spherical patterns like the seams on a soccer ball.

Fullerenes may find new applications in computer chips. Chip manufacturers are reaching the limit of how many transistors and other components can be miniaturized on a silicon wafer. Newer techniques have produced carbon nanotubes -- hollow tubes a fraction of a billionth of an inch in diameter -- with fullerene walls. IBM built a transistor formed from a web of nanotubes laid over a gold substrate, opening the door for the creation of computer chips thousands of times smaller than today's silicon wafers.

The nanotube transistors have performed better than state-of-the-art silicon ones. Prototypes of nanotube devices being tested range from full-color flat-panel TV screens to ultrabright outdoor lighting to a simpler, smaller X-ray.

Although it is in increased computer memory and faster logic chips that nanotubes could have the greatest impact, consumer devices using the technology likely are a decade away. Other products using fullerene nanotubes are closer to the marketplace. Two dozen companies are racing to develop nanotube-based flat panel displays. Samsung hopes to market a 32-inch TV for Christmas 2003.

Others are developing "nonvolatile" computer memory using nanotubes. Nantero, a Massachusetts firm, expects to have a high-density nanotube-based computer memory that will revolutionize the market within two years. Instead of storing the operating information on a magnetic disk, the system information would remain in memory when the computer is turned off, leaving no need to boot the system at startup. Plus, Nantero expects its advancement to have several gigabytes of capacity, compared to about one gigabyte of data in today's best chips.

Today's computers consist of metallic conductors and nonmetallic semiconductors. Nanotubes act as both conductor and semiconductor. This dual nature could become the basis for future computers more efficient than we can imagine.

It's almost certain silicon's days as the brains of a computer are numbered. Chip makers have nearly reached the limit of the number of transistors that can be integrated onto a silicon chip, and venture capitalists of the dot com era are focusing on nanotechnology as the next big payoff.

Don't throw your silicon friend out the window just yet, but look for the nanotube computer and monitor to replace it in the not-so-distant future.




We could all be a little smarter, no? Richard Brill picks up
where your high school science teacher left off. He is a professor of science
at Honolulu Community College, where he teaches earth and physical
science and investigates life and the universe.
He can be contacted by e-mail at rickb@hcc.hawaii.edu



E-mail to Business Editor


Text Site Directory:
[News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Do It Electric!]
[Classified Ads] [Search] [Subscribe] [Info] [Letter to Editor]
[Feedback]



© 2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
https://archives.starbulletin.com