IBM Creates Ring Oscillator on a Single Nanotube 159
deeptrace writes "IBM has combined CMOS circuitry and a single carbon nanotube to implement a 5 stage ring oscillator. Even though the oscillator runs at just 52 MHz, they expect that it could reach the GHz range with improvements. The frequency of the current oscillator was higher than previous circuits using multiple nanotubes. IBM describes the achievement in the paper "Integrated Logic Circuit Assembled on a Single Carbon Nanotube" to be published this week in the journal Science."
So... (Score:1, Interesting)
Anyway, what is the significance of the low frequency? Is the ring oscillator circuit supposed to be limited in frequency only by process parasitics, so that researchers can determine the maximum frequency the process can sustain?
Nanotubes.. (Score:2, Interesting)
What exactly this means?
Cool! (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's why a ring oscillator (Score:4, Interesting)
That's the same circuit mentioned in the recent transparent IC story [slashdot.org] where TFA [deviceforge.com] said
Re:A what? (Score:3, Interesting)
After reading it, it sounds like a project from one of the Radio Shack electronics kits I had back in the day. One of the components in this kit [ebay.com] was a 7400, a quad 2-input NAND gate. By tying the two inputs of a NAND gate together, it's the equivalent of an inverter. By using one or three of the gates wired in a loop, you could make a one- or three-stage ring oscillator.
I don't recall if the documentation identified the circuit as a ring oscillator, but I think some projects used it (maybe with a capacitor somewhere in the loop to slow it down) as a clock source.
drain? (Score:2, Interesting)
Surely they mean 'applied to the gate' (the input voltage is gate to source, the output voltage is drain to source)
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Re:Odd... just did this in class today... (Score:3, Interesting)
Trinary systems? (Score:2, Interesting)
I was going to make a smartass remark about being able to use "new and improved" trinary computers, with positive, negative, and neutral voltages on these transistors, but then I found out they [freeshell.org] already [slashdot.org] exist! [wikipedia.org]
D'oh!
Well, at least I can welcome our ternary computing overlords!