A semiconductor Mother Nature would approve of
U.S. and Chinese researchers have come up with a potential solution for all the electronic waste that's created by obsolete semiconductors -- wooden chips. No, not the kind you decorate your yard with or use to fuel a camp fire, but biodegradable computer chips made out of cellulose nanofibril (CNF), an eco-friendly material that's derived almost entirely from wood.
Taking into consideration the rapid advances in technology and subsequent short lifespan of electronic devices due to frequent upgrades, the researchers claim that using a wood-based CNF substrate "is clearly an ideal substitution for electronics that exist today."
Since pure CNF film is vulnerable to water and moisture, the researchers coat the substrate with a special epoxy resin to make it much more hydrophobic.
"You don't want it to expand or shrink too much. Wood is a natural hydroscopic material and could attract moisture from the air and expand," project leader Zhiyong Cai said, according to New Electronics. "With an epoxy coating on the surface of the CNF, we solved both the surface smoothness and the moisture barrier."
One of the other benefits to wood-based chips is that they don't require the use of gallium arsenide (GaAs), a toxic material containing arsenic that's commonly found in high-speed communication devices like mobile phones and tablets.
As for the cost of these eco-friendly semiconductors, it would depend on the application.
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1Ro3eag
