Cubic Boron Arsenide - Best conductor ever

[Forest Green]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/cubic-boron-arsenide-heat-dissipation
This could mean 10x faster clock speeds.

 

[Hobbes]

No. Clock frequencies have remained constant over the past 10 years or so because it becomes really hard to design chips at higher frequencies: every conductor in the IC starts to work as an antenna, and elements start to interfere with each other. That isn't solved by this material. It will make it easier to push more power through an IC without overheating it.

 

[Forest Green]

No. Clock frequencies have remained constant over the past 10 years or so because it becomes really hard to design chips at higher frequencies: every conductor in the IC starts to work as an antenna, and elements start to interfere with each other. That isn't solved by this material. It will make it easier to push more power through an IC without overheating it.

So what does that mean then? Smaller transistors? More cores?

 

[Hobbes]

The size of the transistors depends mostly on the lithography process. I suspect it means less thermal throttling. And you can stack more layers on top of each other (making chips thicker instead of taking up a larger area), which can improve performance by having things closer together.

 

[JWilly]

It'll also mean smaller (i.e. lower cost) chips, and higher current and power ratings, for power electronics chips...linear voltage regulators, power switches, analog amplifiers, just about anything that handles more than logic levels of current. So it's highly important. It just isn't primarily about making logic chips faster, except indirectly.

 

[Forest Green]

Don't they use decoupling to stop ICs acting as antennae?

 

[Hobbes]

Yes, but decoupling has its own issues: you're adding capacitors, which add their own delay.

 

[OliverSedlacek]

Processor clock rates are limited by the speed at which digital signals can propagate along a wire, at 10GHz after you've allowed for semiconductor switching and synchronisation delays you can only travel a few mm.
Where thermal conductivity really matters is in power electronics, so maybe smaller traction motor inverters.

 

[publiusr]

There are a wider range of boron products possible now
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-fullerenes-2d-principle-boron-nanostructures.html
The analysis, published in the journal 2D Materials, combines more than a dozen known boron nanostructures, including the experimentally observed B₄₀ and B₈₀ fullerenes.

Using first-principles quantum-mechanical calculations, the study shows that the structural, energetic, and electronic properties of these systems can be predicted by looking at the proportions of atoms with four, five, or six bonds. The results reveal clear links between finite and extended boron structures. The B₄₀ cage corresponds to the χ₃ borophene layer, while B₆₅, B₈₀, and B₉₂ connect with the β₁₂, α, and bt borophene sheets, respectively. These structural links suggest that new boron cages could be created by using known two-dimensional boron templates.

"The concept presented here serves as a guide for designing new boron nanostructures with specific magnetic, electronic, or mechanical features. It may also support future experiments using cluster-beam or surface-growth techniques," emphasizes Gonzalez Szwacki.

The publication by the University of Warsaw researcher demonstrates that boron remains an exceptionally versatile platform for creating tunable nanoscale materials, bridging the molecular and two-dimensional worlds.

O/T a nice antique

View: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/89-HcFtpycs

 

[publiusr]

Just in
https://hackaday.com/2026/06/10/introducing-boron-buckyballs/
A buckminsterfullerene, also known as a buckyball, is typically a fullerene consisting of sixty carbon atoms (C60) arranged in a way that resembles a football-like sphere. Extending this arrangement to other types of atoms has until now however proven as elusive as finding non-carbon-based lifeforms. In a paper by [Hyun Wook Choi] et al. and published in Chemical Science the discovery of boron buckyballs is detailed. There is also a soft-paywalled article in the Chemical & Engineering News magazine for a higher-level perspective.

The discovered boron-based buckyball ups the number of atoms to eighty, forming B80 (boron fullerite) with a slightly larger diameter than C60 at 0.85 nm versus 0.71 nm. Perhaps more interesting are the claims by the authors that boron fullerite may have more practical applications than its carbon-based cousin, mostly due to it being predicted to be a semiconductor with an 0.8 eV energy gap and better electron acceptance that provides interesting doping prospects.