C for chips - Cover story
1 min read
Will carbon copy silicon and give the electronics industry a new lease of life? By David Boothroyd.
Carbon is the stuff of life – every living thing on earth is based on it. Now, it is looking increasingly possible the semiconductor industry could follow Mother Nature’s lead. Recent developments in carbon electronics suggest that when the silicon era comes to end, carbon will take over.
Moore’s Law has around two decades to go before silicon electronics will face insuperable problems caused directly by the very features that have made it so successful: the ability to pack ever more, ever smaller components onto ics. Even today, these problems are emerging. It is a tribute to the semiconductor industry that silicon looks set to continue for as long as 20 more years.
But recent progress in developing radically new kinds of ‘nanoscale’ carbon materials makes it at least possible that we are seeing the birth pangs of the future electronics industry.
