at the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) international electron devices meeting in december, stanford university researchers presented their work on bolstering the copper wire interconnects between transistors on a chip using graphene to prevent electron migration.

stanford researchers used graphene to strengthen copper interconnectors. (wikimedia commons)

because copper wires need to be so thin to make space for the increasing transistor density on chips and because the current that is being pushed through those wires is so high to ensure proper performance atoms can be “literally blown out of place” by electron wind, according to an article from ieee spectrum.

the article stated, “the amount of current per area in a wire is called its current density, which has been increasing on cutting-edge chips for two reasons: wires are shrinking and higher currents must course through them to enable the faster switching speeds that boost performance.”

using graphene to surround the copper wires enabled the current to flow without damaging the interconnects and it also reduced the resistance of the copper wires. the electromigration was improved by a factor of 10 and resistance was halved in research done by zhejiang university in china.

th.s. philip wong, the lead researcher at stanford, concluded, “before, most of the time we were hearing about transistors. now it’s not just transistors but wires, memory—many other things that were previously not a problem are beginning to be a problem.”