Transistor offers high performance at low voltage
1 min read
A new type of transistor has been unveiled in the US which, according to its developers, could pave the way towards faster, lower power electronic devices.
Called a near broken-gap tunnel field effect transistor (TFET), the device makes use of the quantum mechanical tunnelling of electrons through an ultra thin energy barrier to provide high current at low voltage.
"This transistor has previously been developed in our lab to replace mosfet transistors for logic applications and to address power issues," explained Penn State graduate student Bijesh Rajamohanan.
"In this work we went a step beyond and showed the capability of operating at high frequency, which is handy for applications where power concerns are critical, such as processing and transmitting information from devices implanted inside the human body."
For implanted devices, generating too much power and heat can damage the tissue that is being monitored, while draining the battery requires frequent replacement surgery.
To combat this, the researchers tuned the material composition of the indium gallium arsenide/gallium arsenide antimony so that the energy barrier was close to zero - or near broken gap, which allowed electrons to tunnel through the barrier when desired.
To improve amplification, they then moved all the contacts to the same plane at the top surface of the vertical transistor.
This device was developed as part of a larger programme sponsored by the National Science Foundation, which aims to develop battery free, body powered wearable health monitoring systems.
