IBM advances computer chip tehnology using copper

Web posted September 22, 1997

Associated Press

NEW YORK - IBM has found a way to make computer chips with copper instead of aluminum, a breakthrough designed to speed up computers and make them more affordable.

Copper carries electrical signals faster than aluminum, long the industry standard, but is harder to apply to the silicon surface of each chip.

International Business Machines Corp on Monday plans to announce it will start selling copper chips early next year.

Switching metals could speed a microprocessor up to 40 percent while cheapening its manufacturing cost by up to 30 percent, resulting in computers that think faster and store more information, it said.

The technology will enable chips to operate on less electricity, making them useful for laptop computers and other battery-operated electronics.

IBM will include the copper in chips that are the tiny brains and storage bins of computers it sells as well as in chips it sells to other computer and electronics makers.

The copper carries signals between the millions of transistors packed into each thumb-nail size surface.

IBM said its new manufacturing process enables it to make transistors more than 500 times thinner than human hair, or about 30 percent smaller than the circuitry in the most sophisticated chips now available.

The advance is the latest in ongoing efforts to boost performance of circuits that control the basic functions of computers and electronics devices.

Last week, Intel Corp. unveiled a way to boost the storage capacity of ``flash memory'' chips, the circuitry that lets computers and other devices hold information even when they're turned off.

As efforts to squeeze more out of computer chips clash with physical laws, manufacturers have been forced to come up with more and more creative methods.

``Aluminum wouldn't have been able to carry enough electricity to keep up the pace. We just broke through one of the fundamental walls,'' said John Kelly, vice president for technology in IBM's chip division.

Because copper is tough to apply, IBM developed a special compound to put between the copper and the silicon base, Kelly said. In addition, IBM designed a new way to flatten the copper that permits the layering of many wires inside chips.

The company has no immediate plans to license its copper technology to other chip makers, Kelly said.