Chilly Crystals; May 2000; Scientific American Magazine; by Diane Martindale; 1 Page(s)

Another trick that could speed up computers is the use of semiconducting, thermoelectric materials to cool microprocessor chips. Unlike most metals, which become hot when an electric current passes through them, these substances have the ability to carry away heat while conducting electricity. Since the 1950s thermoelectric materials, fashioned into miniature heat pumps, have chilled solid-state lasers, infrared detectors and other electronic devices, which tend to run best cold. Unfortunately, the lowest temperature achieved by existing materials hovers around 50 degrees Celsius, a drop not large enough to justify routine use of these expensive minirefrigerators in today's computers.

Now a team led by Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, a chemist at Michigan State University, has concocted a new compound that can beat out the existing competition by cooling to a record 100 degrees C and make faster chips a reality. "This new technology has the potential to increase computer speeds by 100 percent simply by cooling the chip," Kanatzidis notes.