New prospects for microelectronics: carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a new configuration of carbon discovered in 1991 and can be visualized as a rolled up graphite monolayer with a diameter in the nm range and lengths of up to mm. Conduction can be metallic or semiconducting depending on the chirality and diameter. In this paper, we discuss CNT applications within silicon technology as well as new concepts for a silicon-free microelectronics. Due to their enormous aspect ratios and ballistic transport, metallic type CNTs can be considered as replacement for wires and vias. Bundles of tubes or multi-walled tubes can carry much higher current densities than copper due to reduced scattering. We estimate the point at which quantum wires may be superior to classical wires and develop an application scenario for state of the art microelectronics.