Copper has been in use for over 10,000 years. Yet
today, it has become a high-technology material.
Applications for copper are emerging in such seemingly diverse areas
as superconductivity, solar energy, fuel cells, heat exchangers, power
quality, marine protection, and nuclear waste disposal canisters -
to name but a few.
Copper-based communications technologies, like DSL, are enabling the
transmission of far greater amounts of information using existing
copper phone lines. Leading chip manufacturers have developed what
is becoming a new series of super-fast, powerful, energy-efficient
microprocessors-using copper's superior electrical and thermal conductivity.
And a revolutionary new silicon chip with copper-wired interconnects
that provides more layers of memory, more processing power, faster
signal transmission, more reliable wiring, and even cheaper manufacturing
costs is now bringing high-end computing power to portable devices,
TV top boxes, pacemakers, and computer hardware equipment.
As the concept of energy conservation becomes increasingly important
during the millennium, copper will continue to find new and exciting
applications to help us reach energy conservation targets. From solar
cells and water heating panels to the electric vehicle and energy
efficient motors and transformers - copper will surely play an important
role in global energy conservation measures that will be increasingly
implemented in the near future. |
