Copper Technology

Early in the Computer Age, the first general purpose computers weighed about 27 tonnes and required the equivalent of a studio apartment to support the thousands of vacuum tubes, crystal diodes, relays, resistors, capacitors and hand-soldered joints that made up the entire system.

Today - more than half a century later - computers are being made smaller, more compact, and designed to work faster in order to suit more mobile tech-savvy customers. Surfing the Internet, checking e-mails or setting your fantasy sports lineup can now be done from the convenience of a laptop computer, mobile or iPod Touch hand-held device.

One of the elements behind what many believe to be the greatest technological advancement of our time lies in the copper that makes all this always-on conductivity and connectivity possible.

Copper, one of the world's oldest metals known to be used by man, can be found in many of the elements inside in a computer, including the integrated circuitry and micro chips that enable it to run faster, stay cooler and store more information in smaller spaces.

Prior to using copper, aluminium had been the metal of choice for semi-conductor wiring. But as the number of transistors used in microprocessors doubled, the chips needed to be made even smaller, while still being able to hold more information. As new materials were introduced to integrate the system onto smaller chips, IBM researchers discovered that copper worked more efficiently and effectively in improving a computer's performance and speed.

Because copper is a superior conductor of electricity, electrical signals can be transmitted faster. Copper's thermal conductivity also plays a role in reducing the heat that is generated by computers.

Article source: www.copper.org