AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Hafnium Valley?
Not So Fast

Last Friday, Intel and IBM made virtually simultaneous announcements that they were introducing a new chip-making process that was not based upon the silicon dioxide substrate used during the last 40 years. Instead, a new process is based upon the element hafnium and two undisclosed substances.

You might be surprised when I tell you that I'm no expert on hafnium, but Wikipedia knows everything, so I asked Wik to tell me about Hafnium. Here's what Wik has to say.

Unlike silicon dioxide, which is basically sand, Hafnium doesn't exist in its elemental state in nature. It is refined from ore that contains approximately 1% to 2% Hafnium in its natural state. The refining process is done by the Kroll Process, a complex and expensive process that is used to refine titanium. The ores that contain hafnium generally contain 50 times as much zirconium,hafnium's chemical analog, and because of similar chemistry, the two metals are extremely difficult to separate.

The bottom line is that hafnium chips may never end up taking over the market. The process needed to create the raw material is too expensive and environmentally damaging to be used in situations where silicon chips are plenty good enough.