At a time when the miniaturization of electronic components seems to be reaching its limits, a team of researchers from the City University of Hong Kong is opening up a promising new path. They have developed an innovative transistor technology that could revolutionize the design of electronic circuits and make future devices more flexible and less power hungry.
Today, the relentless drive to make electronic components ever smaller is encountering physical and economic barriers that are difficult to overcome. Extreme miniaturization leads to problems such as increased leakage current and therefore higher power consumption. To get around these obstacles, researchers have turned to an innovative approach: using multivalued logic (MVL). This concept makes it possible to reduce the number of components required in a circuit, thus providing a solution to the problem of energy consumption.
The heart of this innovation is based on the development of antiambipolar transistors, a type of transistor that allows the simultaneous transport of positive and negative charges thanks to a unique combination of nanowires and nanosheets. This combination, carried out using an advanced chemical vapor deposition technique, enables the creation of devices with exceptional performance.
Schematic of a ternary inverter based on the GaAsSb/MoS2 heterojunction.
Photo credit: Research group of Professor Johnny Ho / City University of Hong Kong
The special feature of these new transistors is that they offer remarkable antiambipolar transmission properties, including the ability to double the frequency of input signals. This feature reduces the need for additional devices and significantly simplifies the circuit design, which contributes to a significant reduction in energy consumption.
This advance represents a turning point in semiconductor research and offers a viable alternative to traditional miniaturization. It perfectly illustrates how innovations in materials can lead to sustainable and efficient technological solutions that meet the challenges of modern electronics.