Carbon nanotubes scaling up to surpass single-story silicon

A Stanford University engineering team has been busy bringing its grand achievement of 2013 -- the world's first carbon nanotube computer -- to a grand scale by making the performance competitive with silicon-based processors. And the researchers are much closer! With continued support from the National Science Foundation, and in collaboration with IBM and other industry leaders, the researchers are now making carbon nanotube transistors that rival conventional silicon. Building a multilayered chip -- carbon nanotube transistors and memory devices stacked on top of each other like the floors of a high rise -- is the Holy Grail for the team. Ultimately, the researchers are aiming to launch a new generation of electronic devices that are smaller, cheaper, faster and more energy efficient than what is currently available. Their 2013 achievement, the culmination of years of effort by scientists around the world, was a cover story in the journal Nature.