New nanoscale 3D transistors unveiled

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States has successfully developed a new nanoscale 3D transistor using ultra-thin semiconductor materials. This is the smallest 3D transistor known to date, and its performance and functions are comparable to or even exceed those of existing silicon-based transistors, which will open up new avenues for the development of high-performance energy-saving electronic products. The relevant paper was published in the journal Nature Electronics on the 5th.

"Artistic photo" of the new transistor. Image source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology official website

Transistors are basic components in modern electronic devices and integrated circuits, with a variety of important functions, including amplifying and switching electrical signals. However, due to the basic physical limitation of "Boltzmann's tyranny", silicon-based transistors cannot operate below a certain voltage, which undoubtedly limits their further performance improvement and expansion of their application range.

To break this bottleneck, the team used ultra-thin semiconductor materials composed of gallium antimonide and indium arsenide to develop this new type of 3D transistor. The performance of this transistor is comparable to that of the most advanced silicon transistors currently available, and it can operate efficiently at a voltage much lower than that of traditional transistors.

The team also introduced the principle of quantum tunneling into the new transistor architecture. In the quantum tunneling phenomenon, electrons can pass through rather than over energy barriers, making it easier to turn the transistor on or off. To further reduce the size of the new transistor, they created a vertical nanowire heterostructure with a diameter of only 6 nanometers.

Test results show that the new transistor can switch states more quickly and efficiently, with performance 20 times higher than similar tunneling transistors.

This new transistor takes full advantage of quantum mechanics to achieve low-voltage operation and high performance within a few square nanometers. Due to the extremely small size of the transistor, more of it can be packed on a computer chip, which will lay a solid foundation for the development of more efficient, energy-saving and powerful electronic products.

Currently, the team is working on improving the manufacturing process to ensure the consistency of transistor performance across the entire chip. At the same time, they are also actively exploring other 3D transistor designs, such as vertical fin structures.