Postdoctoral research associate Chang Kook Hong headed research using chicken feathers to make computer microchips that are twice as fast as silicon chips.

The head of the program, chemical engineering professor Richard Wool, said researchers looked to chicken feathers because they have shafts that are hollow but strong, and made mostly of air, a great conductor of electricity.

The chicken-feather chip is made from soybean resin and feathers crafted into a composite material that looks and feels like silicon.

In early tests, electrical signals moved twice as quickly through the feather chip as through a conventional silicon chip, researchers said.

"The first time, Dr. Wool's response was, 'Recheck,'" said Chang Kook Hong, 34, the postdoctoral research associate who headed the research. "I repeated the test three times with the same results. Then he said, 'You have a hit here.'"

Problems still remain, including the natural bumps and irregularities that come from using an organic base, said Dr. Dennis Prather, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

"The microchip industry depends on materials that are ultrasmooth and ultraflat," he said. "This was anything but that."

(Agencies)