I once decapsulated one of the first versions of these gate array. To my surprise a large fraction of the die area was completely unused - it seemed that the chip was extremely I/O limited. No wonder it was possible to fit further devices into that gate array.

Unfortunately the article is dumbed down a lot, so it is not easy to understand what technology is actually supposed to be used. But this sound a lot like a Rapid Thermal Anneal (RTA/RTP), which has been used for decades in semiconductor manufacturing. It has also been used a lot in lab environment to manufacture solar cells. It is possible that the energy consumption can be reduced, but the tool throughput and maintenance costs are quite a bit higher than that of a conventional furnace. I suppose that is why it did not catch on so far.

Nobium is not a rare earth element. It is however a part of coltan, which is a sought after mineral that is mined in congo and a major cause of civil war in that region.

Australia is extremely dumb when it comes to renewable energies and especially photovoltaics. Yes, it is that harsh. AUS has some of the most prolific research institutes in that area (The UNSW and the ANU) and provides ideal conditions for electricity generation by solar energy. Yet, they completely and utterly failed to capitalize on this aspect. There are no photovolatic companies of relevance in Australia and there are hardly any photovoltaic power plants.

The UNSW is now degenerated to educating recruits for chinese solar cell companies. Well done, Oz government, I hope sheep breeding and mining will be relevant for another century.

Yes, I was aware of these approaches of opening a band gap. I also recall a recent paper about field induced band gap opening. 250meV is not a lot, but it is a beginning. A band gap as small as this will still lead to serious junction leakage. Nowaday the ability to turn transistors off has become crucial; a major advantage of intels recently announced 22nm tri gate technology is that transistors can be turned off much more efficiently.

I don't think graphene transistors would require a significant investment. Apart from the tools to deposit the graphene, all other tools can be reused, provided that silicon is still the base material. Investing has never been a big issue for the larger companies.

But which applications involving carbon nanotubes are available on commercial scale today? I am only aware of it being used as (expensive) filler material.

CNTs are one of the topics which belong into the "pure science" realm. The main issues here are that no reliable method exist to separate metallic from semiconducting CNTs on large scale and that there is no reliable way of mass manufacturing CN transistors structurally.

Regarding graphene, there are at least methods to produce it on a wafer scale basis. The problem is, however, that despite the promising electron mobility in graphene, the electrical properties of graphene transistors are extremely bad. The latter is owed to the absence of a band gap and issues with junction formation.

Your response seems to suggest that you are qualified to answer the question I implied: Which application is going to remain when the next big thing comes up?

A few years ago all the rage was about carbon nanotubes. An entire generation of phd students was raised on this material. Carbon nanotubes were the material of the future, enabling the space elevator, nanoscale transistors, near-superconductor conductivity and so on. What is left today?

Even before that there were C60 buckyballs, another previously unnoticed carbon allotrope. Buckyballs were set to revolutionize chemistry and were (are) part of n-type organic semicunductors. What is left today?

A fad is a fad, even in science. Of all the imagined applications a few will remain, and will be turned into real applications by technologists and engineers. The scientists will move on to the next fad - well at least those who are quick enough.

TI is currently ramping their 300mm analog fab. Some analysists dubbed it "death star fab" - guess why...

Analog is getting bigger and bigger. Many applications are driven by "green" technology - power devices for electric cars, control circuits and switching converters for power conversion, LED controllers and so on. The automotive semiconductor industry is very delighted with the current development. The last figures I heard were that 20-30% of the costs of a european mid range car are electronics, with a sharp upwards trend. American cars and cars for the american market are usually based on slightly simpler and older technology.

Another thing is that the market entry barriers for analog devices are higher than for digital ones. Analog devices can often not be designed as versatile as digital ones. That is why you need a very wide product range and a good customer relationship. Furthermore, you simply can not hire good analog designers out of school. All of these things combined means that there is a lof of cash in analog.