June 8, 2007 Concerned that current methods for making computer
chips might become stymied as components keep shrinking, many
engineers are looking for circuit building blocks with improved
electrical properties. Among the most promising are stringy
carbon nanotubes that capably form transistors to switch current
on and off. But the nanotubes tend to grow with unpredictable
kinks and bends that could cause bad wiring connections. This
week at the Design Automation Conference in San Diego, a group
of Stanford engineers will present a way to design circuits that
should work even when many of the nanotubes in them are twisted
and misaligned. "The question is what's next in chip
technologies," says Subhasish Mitra, an assistant professor of
electrical engineering and computer science. "That's why
nanotechnology is important. But you want to make sure that you
are not in a lab making something that chip designers cannot
actually use." To prevent that, he and electrical engineering
Professor H.-S. Philip Wong, work