Beyond Silicon: Carbon-Based Nanotechnology
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Carbon-Based Nanotechnology
Nathan P. Guisinger and Michael S. Arnold, Guest Editors Abstract For more than two decades, scientists and engineers have focused on impending limitations (from high-power densities and heat distribution to device patterning) that constrain the future miniaturization of conventional silicon technology. Thus far, academic and industrial efforts have risen to the challenge and continue to advance planar silicon processing, pushing traditional microtechnology to the nanometer scale. However, insurmountable limitations, both of physical nature and cost, still loom and motivate the research of new nanomaterials and technologies that have the potential to replace and/or enhance conventional silicon systems. As time has progressed, another Group IV element has emerged as a front-runner, looking beyond silicon, in the form of carbon-based nanotechnology. The focus of this issue is to provide a comprehensive look at the state-of-the-art in carbon-based nanomaterials and nanotechnologies and their potential impact on conventional silicon technologies, which are not limited to electronics but also encompass micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems, optoelectronics, and memory. Recent advances in carbon nanotube growth, sorting, and optoelectronics will be discussed, and the relatively new and surging area of graphene research will be introduced. In addition, progress in controlling the growth and properties of ultrananocrystalline and nanocrystalline diamond thin films will be reviewed. These efforts are multidisciplinary, heavily materials focused, and tend to translate information and ideas to other carbon-based studies (e.g., graphene is the building block of carbon nanotubes).
Silicon as a Driving Force for Carbon-Based Nanotechnology Today the term “nanotechnology” has become part of our everyday vocabulary, as we find examples of it in almost every field of engineering and science, as well as commercial marketing and Hollywood films. In the early 1990s, limitations on the miniaturization of silicon-based technology began to become apparent. These scaling limitations motivated many of the early research efforts that ultimately put nanotechnology on the map. Since then, silicon-based nanotechnologies have been developed to enhance, complement, or even replace traditional transistors in hopes of continuing industry’s scaling trend of Moore’s Law,1 which says that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years, far exceeding the limitations faced by conventional technologies.
At the same time, chip makers are redefining what these limitations are, as engineers continuously find ways to overcome impending obstacles and deliver the next generation of silicon technology. In fact, the current generation (32 nm) of metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) is a perfect example of state-of-the-art nanotechnology and is by far the most economically successful.2,3 Looking into the future, the advancement and development of nanoelectronics and nanoelectromechanical s
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