New Material Beats Copper’s Thermal Conductivity

Researchers at UCLA’s Samueli School of Engineering, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and other institutions, have discovered a metallic material—theta-phase tantalum nitride (θ-TaN)—... Read original →

With thermal conductivity surpassing 1100 W/m-K, θ-TaN directly addresses the thermal bottleneck in sub-3nm nodes. Technically, it will reshape back-end-of-line and thermal interface material (TIM) design paradigms, forcing co-optimization with EUV lithography and advanced packaging. Upstream suppliers of high-purity sputtering targets and PVD tools must adapt to new material compatibility demands. Regulatory-wise, tantalum’s inclusion on export control lists will accelerate regionalized supply chains across the U.S., EU, and Taiwan, China—raising adoption barriers for smaller foundries. TSMC, Samsung, and Intel will race to evaluate θ-TaN as a thermal interposer in chiplet stacks, pressuring legacy TIM vendors like Shin-Etsu and Henkel. Within 18 months, while mass adoption remains unlikely, this breakthrough will ignite investment in nitride-based thermal solutions and hasten the transition from pure copper interconnects to hybrid thermal architectures where intrinsic material properties—not just scaling—define performance ceilings.