Will graphene chips replace silicon chips in computer?
Silicon transisitors are approaching the point where further miniturization will no longer be possible. It is expected that once silicon transistors reach 16nm size, optical lithography will no longer be capable of making smaller images. Thus, unless all preogress in transistor size is terminated and performance improvements are limited to processor architecture alone, it is very likely that chip manufacturers will move to graphene as a way to get smaller transisitors. However, graphene has flaws. One example is that graphene transistors are very “leaky” compared to those made of silicon- that is, more charge can escape from them. This means that graphene chips are likely to run much hotter than silicon chips.
