Researchers at Nagaoka University of Technology have
invented a circuit board process which will drastically reduce the
cost of manufacturing hardware.
The research team said the new method - which revolves around
spraying copper onto circuit boards - will eventually cut
manufacturing costs of components such as motherboards and graphics
cards to a tenth of their current production price.
It will also allow a wider variety of circuit boards to be made,
boosting IT applications in a number of different technologies. The
research continues but a practical version of the technology is
mooted to be ready for 2012.
The breakthrough came from the invention of a method of making
nanograins of copper that resist oxidisation. The resulting cheap
copper powder can be applied to a circuit board, inkjet style,
cutting the time-consuming process of etching circuit boards.
Currently, copper nanograins are made using an energy-intensive
process that involves heating copper until it evaporates. In the
new procedure,
a
fine copper wire is jolted with around 6,000 volts for several
microseconds, instantly scorching it by several thousand degrees
and evaporating the copper. The metal vapour is immediately cooled
using a gaseous fusion of nitrogen and oleic acid to produce
nanograins of copper. The acid coating protects the copper
particles from oxidation.
Controlling factors - such as the pressure of the cooling gas -
can be altered to vary the size of the copper nanograins. They can
be anything from five to 70 nanometres, depending on the type of
circuit board being made.