MIT Engineers Develop 3D Nanoscale Transistors That Defy Physical Limits
Silicon transistors have served us well, but like everything in the physical world, theyhave their limitations. The laws of physics impose bottlenecks on their performance and energy efficiency.
Now, a team of engineers at MIT may have found a way tobreak through these limits with a radical new transistor design that harnesses the wild power of quantum mechanics.
The problem they’re tackling is known as the Boltzmann tyranny. This refers to the fundamental limit on how low the voltage can be for switching a silicon transistor at room temperature. Go too low, and the transistor loses its ability to switch.
This voltage floor has hampered the dramaticimprovements in energy efficiency that we need as power-hungry AI applications take over more processing tasks.
The MIT research team fabricated their experimental transistors using unique semiconductor materials like gallium antimonide and indium arsenide, instead of traditional silicon. The research, partially funded by Intel, was recently published in Nature Electronics.
But the real magic lies in their unique, tiny 3D design, crafted using precision tools at MIT.nano, MIT’s dedicated nanofabrication facility. The transistors feature a vertical nanowire heterostructure just 6 nanometers in diameter, which the researchers believe is the smallest 3D transistor ever reported.
At this scale, quantum effects begin to play a significant role, allowing the transistors to bypass the physical limitations of silicon. The scientists designed their transistors to exploit quantum tunneling, where electrons essentially tunnelthrough an insulating barrier instead of going over it, allowing the transistor to turn on at lower voltages. Another effect is quantum confinement, where the narrow dimensions of the nanowires alter the material’s properties.
Combining these effects, the MIT device achieves something silicon cannot: extremely fast switching times with minuscule voltages.Testing showed that their switching voltage slope is steeper than the theoretical limit for traditional silicon. In fact, its current performance is about 20 times higher than other experimental tunneling transistors.
This is a technology that has the potential to replace silicon, so you can use it to do everything silicon currently does, but withmuch higher energy efficiency, said Yanjie Shao, the project’s lead author and a postdoc at MIT.
This breakthrough could pave the way for a new generation of electronics with unprecedented power and efficiency. As we continue to push the boundaries of computing, these nanoscale transistors could be the key to unlocking afuture where our devices are both powerful and sustainable.
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