Breakthrough Metal Could Revolutionize Chip Cooling And Thermal Management

A multi-institution research team has discovered a metallic material that conducts heat nearly three times more efficiently than copper or silver, which are presently the primary metals used for industrial thermal management. The researchers believe that this discovery will have massive implications for extreme heat-dissipation applications, like AI datacenters, for example.

A specific metallic phase of tantalum nitride known as theta-phase tantalum nitride (θ-TaN), was identified by a team led by UCLA and reported in the Science journal. Thus far, silver and copper have defined the upper limits of thermal conductivity in metals, with values of approximately 429 Watts per meter Kelvin and 400 W/mK, respectively. θ-TaN, however, has a record-breaking thermal conductivity of roughly 1,100 W/mK.