Next gen semiconductor tech; self-assembly and carbon

Not just electronics industry, the whole world should be happy for having a material like silicon for making the human life better. This vastly available, fairly strong, and non hazardous material is central to computing and communication revolution we have seen in past 40 years. Engineers could bring down the millimeter measuring transistor to nano meter dimensions. While the semiconductor industry still confident of making chips with line widths down to 7 nm, further integration is becoming extremely difficult with serious limitations in the silicon material itself. Even the lithography process used today to make chips is also becoming difficult to scale down further, both scientifically and economically. To build chips at atomic scale, researchers are exploring new materials which can be assembled at atomic or molecular level. So another new gift to the semiconductor industry now is the carbon material graphene and a derivative of it; the carbon nano tube (CNT). Graphene is produced from Carbon material graphite. Graphite is cheap, abundant, fairly strong and nonhazardous, just like silicon. The problem with carbon nano tubes, which are made using graphene is, making it conduct is easier, but switching off it is difficult. carbon nano tube switch work faster and consume less power compared to silicon MOSFETs. However interesting is this material, researchers are sti...