FROM space elevator cables to television screens and fuel cell electrodes, there is scarcely an unclaimed application for carbon nanotubes.

Now microprocessor giant Intel wants to use them to extend the life of its chips. In a patent published last week (www.tinyurl.com/35hkar), Intel reveals how nanotubes' strength and heat-dissipating properties can be used to reinforce the conducting copper tracks that connect millions of transistors together.

Inventor Chi-Won Hwang says depositing heat-sink nanotubes on electrically insulating layers adjacent to the copper tracks slashes the thermal stress caused by fast-pulsing electric currents. Such stress can cause tracks to fracture, rendering some chips useless. The super-strong tubes also boost a chip's resistance to impact shock, Hwang notes.