Faster Circuit Board Built With Chicken Feathers
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 03.30.06
In a recent exhibit in London, a circuit board made from soybeans and chicken feathers drew a great deal of attention. The board was developed by Mingjiang Zhan and Richard Wool in collaboration with Intel. A micrograph of feathers (seen here) shows hollow keratin fibers, a light, tough material. These fibers are combined with a soy-based epoxy to make printed circuit boards (right) that are not only recyclable but also faster than conventional boards.
"With the demise of the oil business in about 25 years and the ever increasing utilization of electronic materials, it makes excellent green engineering sense to pursue new materials that are derived from renewable resources,” Wool said. “The biobased materials are derived from renewable plant and animal feedstock, which use carbon dioxide from the air and help minimize global warming, as compared to petroleum feedstock."
For more details see this report from Environmental Health.
Chickens the next big natural resource.
How is it that chicken feathers and soy-based epoxy make the boards "faster"?
Olmos, the chicken feathers make it faster because they have a higher dielectric constant, which means the electrons running around the board will not have to fight with the board to get from a to b. The less electronic interference means faster point to point communication. Also, the thermal coefficient of expansion is lower, so less stress is placed on components once the board heats up (it does not expand as much because keratin expands less than glass/poly resin). Hope this helps.
With the avian infuenza (Bird Flu) That's going around. Getting the materials to build this hardware is going to cost more than silicon soon. Don't put your money on this.
I only have one issue with this idea. What happens when the board is running and hot, will it still work and if so will I smell something cooking? I mean it is based off of a food product.
General Tzo's Computer
What about cockroaches, rats, and mice and other hungry vermin? Might they want to eat my computer?
Calm down guys. It's made from chicken feathers not chicken. Have you ever smelled burnt feathers? I hope you wouldn't want to eat them. They will run cooler anyway.