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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. A new type of transistor shaped like a Christmas tree has arrived just in time for the holidays, but the prototype won't be nestled under the tree along with the other gifts.
"It's a preview of things to come in the semiconductor industry," said Peide "Peter" Ye, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. Researchers from Purdue and Harvard universities created the transistor, which is made from a material that could replace silicon within a decade. Each transistor contains three tiny nanowires made not of silicon, like conventional transistors, but from a material called indium-gallium-arsenide. The three nanowires are progressively smaller, yielding a tapered cross section resembling a Christmas tree.
The research builds on previous work in which the team created a 3-D structure instead of conventional flat transistors. The approach could enable engineers to build faster, more compact and efficient integrated circuits and lighter laptops that generate less heat than today's. New findings show how to improve the device performance by linking the transistors vertically in parallel.
"A one-story house can hold so many people, but more floors, more people, and it's the same thing with transistors," Ye said. "Stacking them results in more current and much faster operation for high-speed computing. This adds a whole new dimension, so I call them 4-D."
Findings will be detailed in two papers to be presented during the International Electron Devices Meeting on Dec. 8-12 in San Francisco. One of the papers has been highlighted by conference organizers as among "the most newsworthy topics and papers to be presented."
The work is led by Purdue doctoral student Jiangjiang Gu and Harvard postdoctoral researcher Xinwei Wang.
The newest generation of silicon computer chips, introduced this year, contain transistors having a vertical 3-D structure instead of a conventional flat design. However,
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| Contact: Emil Venere venere@purdue.edu 765-494-4709 Purdue University Source:Eurekalert |
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