MIT physicists have developed a groundbreaking transistor based on segnertoelectric material that has the potential to revolutionize electronics. This ultra-thin material, first created by the same team in 2021, separates positive and negative charges into different layers.
Under the leadership of Professor Pablo Harillo-Errero and Professor Raymond Ashuri, the team demonstrated that their new transistor surpasses current industrial standards in several key parameters. The transistor is based on segnelectric material arranged in a parallel configuration, a structure not found in nature. Applying an electric field causes the layers of the material to shift slightly, altering the positions of the boron and nitrogen atoms and significantly changing its electronic properties.
The innovation in this new transistor lies in its ability to switch between positive and negative charges at the nanosecond level, crucial for high-performance calculations and data processing. Furthermore, the transistor displayed exceptional durability, showing no signs of degradation even after 100 billion switches. This durability far surpasses that of ordinary flash memory devices, which often require complex methods to distribute reading and recording operations on the chip.
With a thickness of only a few billionths of a meter, the ultra-thin transistor opens up possibilities for denser computer memory and more energy-efficient transistors. However, challenges remain in scaling up the production of these materials for widespread implementation. The primary obstacle lies in the complexity of growing the materials on a larger scale.
In addition to the transistor development, the research group is exploring the use of optical impulses to initiate segnertoelectricity and testing the material’s limits. The current manufacturing process for the new segnertoelectric materials is intricate and not suitable for mass production.