Rensselaer Magazine
At Rensselaer


Helping Nanotubes Get Into Shape

Rensselaer researchers have developed a new method of compacting carbon nanotubes into dense bundles which are efficient conductors and could one day replace copper as the primary interconnects used on computer chips. They may also hasten the transition to next-generation, 3-D stacked chips.


At Rensselaer
* *
Carbon nanotube bundle before (left) and afer (right) densification.
Images provided by Zhengchun Liu.

James Jian-Qiang Lu, associate professor of physics and electrical engineering, together with his research associate Zhengchun Liu, decided to investigate how to “densify” carbon nanotube bundles after they are already grown.


The process boosts the density of these carbon nanotube bundles by five to 25 times. The higher the density, the better they can conduct electricity, Lu says. Several factors, including nanotube height, diameter, and spacing, affect the resulting density, Liu adds.

“It’s a significant and critical step toward the realization of carbon nanotube interconnects with better performance than copper,” Lu says. “But there’s still a lot of work to do before this technology can be integrated into industrial applications.”

Despite his initial successes, Lu says the density results obtained are not ideal and carbon nanotubes would have to be further compacted before they can outperform copper as a conductor. The research team is exploring various methods to achieve ever-higher density and higher quality of carbon nanotube bundles.

*   “At Rensselaer” Contents   *