Researchers in China say that they have created a new silicon-free transistor that could significantly increase performance and at the same time reduce energy consumption. The team says that this development is a new direction for transistor research.
The scientists said that the new transistor could be integrated into chips that could one day cut up to 40% faster than the best existing silicon processors from US companies like Intel. This corresponds to a report in the South Chinese morning post (SCMP).
Despite this dramatic increase in power, the researchers claim that such chips would also perform 10% less performance. The scientists outlined their results in a new study published on February 13th in the magazine Nature.
Main author of the study Hail pengProfessor of Chemistry at Beijing University (PKU) in China told SCMP: “If chip innovations based on existing materials are regarded as” abbreviation “, then our development of 2D material transistors is comparable to” changing lanes “.”
A new type of silicon -free transistor
The efficiency and performance increases are possible thanks to the unique architecture of the chip, the scientists said at work, in particular the new two-dimensional silicon-free transistor that they created. This transistor is a gate-around field effect transistor (Gaafet). In contrast to previous leading transistor designs such as the Finfet transistor (FIN FILD Effect Transistor), a Gaafet transistor wraps sources with a gate on all four pages instead of just three.
On its most basic level a transistor Is a semiconductor in every computer chip. Each transistor has a source, a gate and a drain with which the transistor acts as a switch.
The gate controls a transistor the current flow between the source and drain connections and can act as a switch and as an amplifier. If you wrap this gate around all sides of a source (or sources, as some transistors contain several) – instead of only three as with conventional transistors – this leads to potential improvements for both performance and efficiency.
This is because a fully packaged source offers better electrostatic control (since a lower energy loss against static electricity losses and the potential for higher drive currents and faster switching times.
Although the Gaafet architecture itself is not new, the use of Wismut Oxyselenide by the PKU team as a semiconductor and the fact that they used it to create a “atomically thin” two-dimensional transistor.
2D -bismuth transistors are less brittle and more flexible than traditional silicon, the scientists added in the study. Wismuth provides better mobility of the straps – the speed at which electrons can move by using an electrical field. It also has a high dielectric constant – a measure of the ability of a material to store electrical energy – which contributes to the increased efficiency of the transistor.
If this transistor is installed in a chip that proves to be faster than US-made chips from Intel and other companies, China could also make it possible Current restrictions When buying advanced chips and when recording in US chip production, by postponing a completely different manufacturing process.