At 0.8 nm, amorphous carbon film may replace 2 layers in chip wiring, serving as both barrier and liner in ultra-scaled copper interconnects

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-nanometers-carbon-layers-future-chip.html

"sub-2nm chip wiring faces increased electrical resistance, parasitic capacitance, copper diffusion... overcome replacing thick metal barrier layers with ultra-thin carbon barrier maximizing conductive volume using low-temperature chemical vapor deposition... maintains ultralow 1.35 dielectric constant, high dielectric strength, robust barrier against metal-ion migration, outperforms tantalum nitride barriers by orders of magnitude... maximizes conductive volume... scalable semiconductor manufacturing"