There is a lesser known class of materials called semiconductors with high thermal conductivity. Basically these substances act as silicon – you can make electronics using them as the basis for microchips. However, they do have one particularly great feature: they perform much better than silicon when it comes to cooling electronic components (and computers).
And examples of surface mount electronic components, including microchips. Image credit: Lenharth Systems via Negative spaceCC0 . public domain
A new MIT-led study investigated a certain material – the mass boron arsenide (c-BA) – created through a combination of boron and arsenic. The results are quite promising: this chemical compound has the potential to become a substitute for the ubiquitous silicon that currently dominates the entire semiconductor industry.
The reason lies in its exceptionally good thermal conductivity. As the team explains, cubic boron arsenide has “the third best thermal conductivity of any material,” where the first two positions are occupied by diamond and isotope-enriched cubic boron nitride.
And at the same time, c-BA exhibits other electronic related properties comparable to conventional silicone or even better. For example, cubic boron arsenide exhibits simultaneous high electron and hole mobility of approximately 1600 cm squared on volts per second, while in silicon the magnitude of the same parameter is even lower, 1400 cm squared per volt/second. The mobility of charge carriers is an important parameter that determines the performance of modern electronic components, especially when high frequency signals are being processed.
“The high dipole mobility combined with extremely high thermal conductivity makes c-BA a promising candidate for next-generation electronics,” the team concludes. essay.
Source: Science.org
