Defective graphene sheets look poised to succeed silicon

As circuitry gets smaller and approaches the effective limitation of silicon's computing power, and Moore's Law begins to look like it has an expiration date, we get closer and closer to needing an alternative. Graphene is held to be the answer; sheets of carbon a single atom thick that could be stacked and composited to create processors. Two professors at the University of South Florida, Matthias Batzill and Ivan Oleynik, have found a new way to turn those sheets into circuits by creating nanoscale defects. These strips of broken atomic rings wind up having metallic properties, thus making them act like microscopic wires. IBM is already teasing us with the possibilities of graphene and now, with a more practical way to make graphene-based electronics, we'd say Moore's Law still has at least another couple decades left.

[Photo credit: Y. Lin]

[pavlindrom Posted Apr 2nd 2010 8:59AM]

Okay. Thanks.

[Eternity Posted Apr 2nd 2010 9:04AM]

Unless this is going to help AMD catch up with Intel like the good ol' days, I am not interested. The CPU market needs some stiffer competition. Look what wonders competition has done for the smart phone market! It has brought us the EVO.

[juanvaldez Posted Apr 2nd 2010 10:12AM]

@Eternity While I was tempted to respond with a very technical explanation...These are two completlely different industries that shouldn't be compared. One has massive R&D budget compared to production, leading to a monopolistic market, and the other is nicely balanced between many costs making for a more competitive marketplace. AMD catching up either means they have to spend more money or be a lot (A LOT) smarter with their money, either way, it's kind of just throwing money at a problem (which isn't technically great, even if it provides an alternative, there are better alternatives that government won't touch with a 10 foot pole).

[Eternity Posted Apr 2nd 2010 10:16AM]

@juanvaldez I am going to take your word on that as I am not well versed in Economics Fu.

[refink Posted Apr 2nd 2010 9:11AM]

say hello to the next paradigm shift

[Brownsound279 Posted Apr 2nd 2010 9:13AM]

Holy jeebus! I go to USF and Oleynik was my professor in Eng Physics II.. smart guy! USF has a lot of good materials research going on; I feel weird typing this on Engadget.

[Ignition1 Posted Apr 2nd 2010 9:16AM]

Another 20 years and I'll be running a 200 Core Graphene AMD-Inside processor.

[Ignition1 Posted Apr 2nd 2010 9:17AM]

@Ignition1

In my iPhone! :P

[JRKScope Posted Apr 2nd 2010 9:41AM]

@Ignition1 In your MicroPalmDroid iLife 1337 series 8G 2EB *lists countless other arbitrary specs*

[joquarky Posted Apr 2nd 2010 12:26PM]

@Ignition1

I hope you realize that in 20 years the iPhone will be about as relevant to your daily life as Windows 3.0 is to people today.

[Ignition1 Posted Apr 2nd 2010 1:12PM]

@JRKScope

8GB? 20 years...more like 8TB. Lol.

But yes...who knows what'll happen in 20 years? I wish I had a time machine.

[oringal Posted Apr 2nd 2010 9:18AM]

wow. you guys are really intense. working on good friday XD

[BigJayDogg3 Posted Apr 2nd 2010 9:27AM]

@oringal

They did it for Christmas.

[TinWard Posted Apr 2nd 2010 10:11AM]

@oringal It's not like nerds have social lives. What else would they be doing?

[Brokinarrow Posted Apr 2nd 2010 10:23AM]

right, because good Friday is such a huuuuuugely recognized holiday..... /sarcasm

[Nitesh Posted Apr 2nd 2010 10:41AM]

Excellent, silicon is SOOO retro. Time to go.

[exNewt Posted Apr 2nd 2010 2:05PM]

I for one welcome our new graphene-based masters...

[Kromatik Posted Apr 2nd 2010 3:16PM]

@exNewt

I second this!

*bows*

[questionexclamation Posted Apr 2nd 2010 10:12PM]

Wait...So what is to become of my Valley? Would it be called the Graphene Valley instead of Silicon?

Grahff...feeeen...Vahlleee..

No way!

[nekonyan Posted Apr 3rd 2010 3:28AM]

@questionexclamation
SF Bay will still be Silicon Valley.

Tampa Bay will be Graphene [Valley / Beach / ?].

[Sibuna Posted Apr 2nd 2010 10:32PM]

I bet you just have to press your pencil really hard to the paper to do this.