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posted by CoolHand on Friday June 19 2015, @05:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the resheathing-our-equipment dept.

A typical computer chip includes millions of transistors connected with an extensive network of copper wires. Although chip wires are unimaginably short and thin compared to household wires both have one thing in common: in each case the copper is wrapped within a protective sheath. For years a material called tantalum nitride has formed protective layer in chip wires.

Now Stanford-led experiments demonstrate that a different sheathing material, graphene, can help electrons scoot through tiny copper wires in chips more quickly.

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a strong yet thin lattice. Stanford electrical engineer H.-S. Philip Wong says this modest fix, using graphene to wrap wires, could allow transistors to exchange data faster than is currently possible. And the advantages of using graphene would become greater in the future as transistors continue to shrink.

"Researchers have made tremendous advances on all of the other components in chips but recently, there hasn't been much progress on improving the performance of the wires," he said.

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-simple-clever-boost-chip.html

[Source]: https://engineering.stanford.edu/news/stanford-engineers-find-simple-yet-clever-way-boost-chip-speeds


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @06:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @06:15PM (#198349)
    The conductivity of silver is about 7 percent higher than for copper.
    I want silver wires too.

    Bulk cost it should only add about 10 bucks max to the cost.
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @06:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @06:42PM (#198357)

    They should do it with the big Es (extreme/enthusiast/enterprise chips)

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @07:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @07:07PM (#198368)

    Oxidation.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @07:30AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @07:30AM (#199313)

      [Citation required]

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by tibman on Friday June 19 2015, @07:09PM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 19 2015, @07:09PM (#198369)

    That's the part that doesn't make sense to me. Graphene is very conductive but they are replacing an insulator with it? Okay just read the article. It can only replace the insulator when the insulator isn't being used for electrical insulation. Sometimes the insulator is being used as a physical barrier between the copper and the silicon, not between two copper wires.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @10:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @10:28PM (#198467)

      Skin effect [wikipedia.org]
      The higher the frequency, the less of the bulk of the conductor that counts.
      Waveguides are hollow and their walls are only thick enough that they don't dent too easily.
      The shield of some coax is silver-plated (then coated with plastic to avoid oxidation) in order to maximize this phenomenon.

      I wonder (as does ese002 below): Is the copper needed at all?

      Velocity factor [wikipedia.org]
      The transmission lines you will typically encounter max out at about 66 percent of the speed of light.
      To get better numbers requires more separation between the conductors (difficult to miniaturize).

      -- gewg_