Scientists at the Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures have created a chip prototype made from molybdenum disulphide, or molybdenite. This naturally occurring material can be worked within layers only three atoms thick, meaning it may be used to make chips three times smaller than the current standard.
Molybdenite may go head-to-head against silicon for use in the next generation of smaller, more efficient mobile devices. The material is promising, especially for making the thinner chips device-makers are demanding as they search for ways to pack more mobile features into a smaller package.
Lack of a compact LTE chip was reportedly one reason Apple did not release an iPhone 5 this year, preferring to wait until chip technology caught up with its desire for a sleek design.
Recent technology has cut the thickness of memory chips by 20 percent, but molybdenite is expected to take future mobile devices far beyond today's standards of thinness.
Advances in chip technology are about more than device size, however. Mobile processors are called upon to do more functions, such as handling heavy app use, streaming media and enabling augmented reality, and the chip technology that drives them must advance as well.
Chip maker Qualcomm has introduced mobile processors allowing devices to smoothly stream movies and television shows, and also is working on chips that would enable gesture control. An innovative new chip material like molybdenite, allowing for high-powered processors that take up less space, may soon take mobile processors to the next level, allowing for more data-intensive activities.
Molybdenite also has mechanical properties that may allow it to be made into flexible sheets of chips, which may be used in mobile devices or computers that roll up, fold or stick to the skin, possibly bringing futuristic phones like the bendable Nokia Kinetic prototype closer to reality.
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