Once again transistor radios made from carbon nanotubes make the news. Nanotube devices and circuits are now possible, thanks to a novel growth technique developed by researchers at the University of Illinois, Lehigh and Purdue universities in the US.
"These results indicate that nanotubes might have an important role to play in high-speed analog electronics, where benchmarking studies against silicon indicate significant advantages in comparably scaled devices, together with capabilities that might complement compound semiconductors," said Rogers, a Founder Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois.
The growth technique produces linear, horizontally aligned arrays of hundreds of thousands of carbon nanotubes that function collectively as a thin-film semiconductor material in which charge moves independently through each of the nanotubes. The arrays can be integrated into electronic devices and circuits by conventional chip-processing techniques.