I work as a mechanical engineer designing CVD (chemical vapor deposition) equipment for research applications. Some of my systems are designed to grow carbon n

I work as a mechanical engineer designing CVD (chemical vapor deposition) equipment for research applications. Some of my systems are designed to grow carbon nanotubes, although admittedly not at the purity or wafer size that would be required for serious commercial semiconductor work. My experience is that CNT systems are among the easiest jobs I get. They tend to have very simple gas systems, with only a few gases, and few other complications in terms of temperature or other complications. This isn't to say that one could take a current chip fab and start running a CNT process tomorrow, there is of course going to be a lot of research and development still required. On the other hand, it certainly seems reasonable to expect that this won't be particularly harder than developing some other new process based on a different technology.