Earth & Sky

Nanotechnology speeds, cools computer chips

Nanocrystals can be made in a variety of shapes and sizes. The rod-shaped nanocrystals on the left can be stacked for use in LEDs. The tetrapod on the right can help wire nano-sized devices. Photo: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory

A breakthrough could help computer chips keep up to speed with what computer experts call Moore’s Law.

Moore’s Law is an observation – first made in 1965 – that computing power tends to double every 18 months to two years. Today, experts wonder how long this trend can continue.

Earth & Sky spoke to IBM scientist Dan Edelstein. His team created a manufacturing process to help keep computer chips cooler – and faster – using nanotechnology, the science of the very small.

Computer chips incorporate silicon transistors and copper wires. The faster the chip, the more current flows through the transistors and wires. More current also means more heat. And that heat can cause a computer to crash and burn.

Edelstein helped develop a technique to create insulating vacuum cavities between the wires in a computer chip. In this technique, a network of trillions of tiny holes are first created in the insulation around a chip. Those nano–holes are merged together – arranging themselves to look like a honeycomb – to form the vacuum cavities.

The vacuum cavities let the computer use less power to go faster. So computer power can continue to keep up with Moore’s Law, Edelstein predicts – doubling every 18 months to two years – for perhaps another decade.

Thanks to the National Science Foundation.

Written by Beverly Tomov