IBM Research has announced what it claims is the first complete IC built on a single carbon-nanotube molecule. The feat represents a significant advance, according to the company, because it will allow researchers to evaluate the presumed performance benefits of carbon nanotubes over traditional semiconductors.

The IBM scientists built the circuit, a ring oscillator, using standard semiconductor processes and employed a single molecule as the base for all the circuit's components. The architecture uses unique carbon-nanotube properties and maintains compatibility with established circuit concepts, according to the company. The ring oscillator often finds use in such tests because it stresses certain material characteristics and thus indicates how the technology may perform in complete chips, IBM says. The team observed circuit speeds 1 million times faster than previous circuits built using multiple nanotubes—but still far slower than existing silicon devices.