Carbon beats copper at 45 nanometers

Carbon nanotubes outperformed copper interconnects at the 45-nm process node, according to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers. In what is billed as the world's first supercomputer simulation to include detailed quantum mechanical effects, the New York state researchers concluded that the ideal performance of copper interconnects cannot be met at 45 nm and smaller sizes. The reason, they said, was excess heat generation. By switching to carbon nanotube interconnects, the heat problem was solved, they added.