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Links to broadcast quality audio files and transcripts -- Dr. Meyya Meyyappan, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. interviewed about using carbon nanotubes as 'iuterconnects' in integrated circuits or 'silicon chips.' Issued April 14, 2003.

Question 3. What are some of the challenges in computer chip manufacturing, as chips get smaller and more powerful over time?

The audio recording is 1:31 minutes

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Full Transcript (below)


3. What are some of the challenges in computer chip manufacturing, as chips get smaller and more powerful over time? (1:31 MINUTES)

Dr. Meyya Meyyappan: "The way the computer chip manufacturing is going is that the size of the chip is progressively going to get smaller and smaller, and what that also means is umm the speed would be going up, and so, those are some of the important trends in manufacturing these computer chips – that is through the next five or six generations, probably for another 10 years. But in order for us to get there, there are a lot of challenges that need to be worked on. And these challenges manifest in many aspects of manufacturing. And one of those aspects is this interconnect. For example, when the size gets smaller and smaller, you may want to think of it as umm real estate in a computer chip. Okay, and it is very expensive real estate. And it is getting denser and denser. So, when you get denser and denser features in this computer chip, the wiring becomes more and more of a problem. And, so, that’s why this interconnect wiring scheme is on of the critical technologies in manufacturing these computer chips through the next four or five generations. We hope that with this invention, for introducing a carbon nanotube as interconnect, that some of these problems are going to be solved successfully."

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