Fastest transistor yet?
Northrop Grumman claims to have set a world record for transistor speed. The indium phosphide based high electron mobility transistor (InP HEMT) has a maximum frequency of more than 1THz.
“This represents, to the best of our knowledge, the state of the art in high frequency transistor capability,” said Dwight Streit, vice president, Technical Development and Microelectronics Technology at the company's Space Technology sector. “These advancements will enable a new generation of military and commercial applications that operate at higher frequencies with improved performance.”
Tests at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory validated the transistor’s performance by measuring a three stage millimetre wave ic amplifier at 340GHz with a gain of more than 15dB.
