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Thermal Nanotape Promises Cooler, Healthier Chips
Blacklaw writes "A team of researchers comprised of members from the Semiconductor Research Corporation and Stanford University has developed a new thermal nanotape which it claims will lead to chips that run cooler and last longer. The thermal nanotape, constructed of binder materials surrounding carbon nanotubes, promises to lead to the creation of semiconductors — including CPUs and GPUs — that don't suffer from the rigors of frequent temperature changes, known as thermal cycling."
I had to say it.
"Lame" - Galaxar
I had a mental picture of a really, really tiny tape dispenser.
I had a mental picture of healthy potato chips. I should have had breakfast.
Could this be the answer to cooling 3D ICs too? Layers of this stuff inbetween the layers of silicon. The thermal regulation seems to be where most 3D ICs fall down.
Thermal Nanotape Promises Cooler Chips
This isn't good. Chips should remain nerdy for maximum performance.
You might be amused by a few facts regarding the word unobta(i)nium, and an explanation of its behaviour in said film.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
I recall some obscure articles and google ads about CNT products for sale. Unless you're a material engineer doing something very obscure work you're unlikely to have a use for it though.
Off the shelf at
http://www.kleancarbon.com/Single-Wall-Carbon-Nano-tubes.aspx
Kind of expensive.
Note that fullerenes form in natural soot. So its unlikely a typical fullerene is super dangerous.
One huge problem is fullerenes are a class of material, not one individual atom (err, well, they're mostly C) or molecule. You know how pissed off chemists were about that superman movie where he dissolved a computer using "acid" so a generation of the clueless masses grew up thinking there is an element or something called "acid" and all acids including citric will instantly vaporize steel, fiberglass, and silicon? Well the nano guys get that way about fullerenes and cancer. Could you theoretically micromachine a nanotube that is the exact same size and shape as an asbestos fiber and then inhale a bunch of them and die? Well, yeah if you intentionally tried really freaking hard, but why would you do something that stupid?
Kind of like blaming that new-fangled "metal" technology because people get hurt when tiny chemically propelled chunks of "metal" strike them in their heart, or when you make a hundred pound pile of U235 bad stuff happens, so I suggest we all live in fear of this "metal" technology and watch lots of scary TV.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Juice from citrus peel, lighter fluid or pretty much any solvent will shift thermal past, or you could:
A: Use gloves
B: Not be so ham-fisted (I'm not trying to be insulting but seriously, how difficult is it to put a small blob of goo on a little square and spread it around with a credit card?!)
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
Many substances are known carcinogens, but how dangerous are they?
That's pretty well-known, too. We don't just figure out they cause cancer and then decide we're done.
Asbestos is one substance that's a known carcinogen and is strictly controlled or outlawed in most countries, but it's not particularly dangerous unless one is constantly exposed to it in a workplace. Asbestos fibers occur naturally in the air and water, a normal adult has millions of asbestos fibers in the lungs.
But the mean size of processed asbestos particles is more dangerous.
Nanotubes resemble asbestos in some ways, so they probably have similar characteristics. They are probably mildly carcinogenic at continued exposures. However I don't think they will pose the same risk as asbestos did in the early 20th century because workplace conditions are much healthier these days. Besides, asbestos was mined, carbon nanotubes are fabricated. That makes a lot of difference in the relative air concentrations of each.
Not necessarily. It depends on the mining and containment techniques, and further, on what happens to them afterwards. It was not the practice to use Asbestos in conditions where it would be released into the atmosphere except in brake linings, for which we today have superior compounds (albeit not quite as inexpensive) and for which we truly no longer need it (because modern brake fluids make thermal transfer less of an issue, where they are specified... which is IMO in an insufficient number of cases. Anyone installing DOT3 fluid in anything is a stupid tool.)
In any case, soot has been found to be an incredibly common carcinogen and its production and even its characteristics are controlled in any industrial context. Well, it's supposed to be. You can find excessive emissions in commercial cases as fast as you can pay people to climb smokestacks and drop probes down them.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"