There is a program gate as well as the usual control gate. Credit: Vienna University of Technology
Normally, computer chips have the same electronic components. New types of adaptive transistors can be switched in a flash so that they can perform different logical tasks. This fundamentally changes the possibilities of chip design and opens up completely new opportunities in the field of artificial intelligence, neural networks or even logic that works with more values than just 0 and 1.
Scientists at TU Wien used germanium instead of Silicon in order to achieve this. The most flexible transistor in the world has been produced using germanium. It was presented in the journal. The special properties of germanium and the use of dedicated program gate electrodes made it possible to create a prototype for a new component.
Everything is changed by an additional control electrode.
The transistor is a tiny component that either allows current to flow or blocks the flow of current, depending on whether or not an electrical voltage is applied to a control electrode. It is possible to build logic circuits and memory storage.
The electric charge is transported in the transistor by either free- moving electrons that carry a negative charge or missing electrons that charge the spot. They can be moved through the material.
In the novel transistor at TU Wien, both electrons and holes are manipulated simultaneously in a very special way. The gate electrode found in conventional transistors is placed above the germanium segment. Our transistor has another control electrode on the interface between germanium and metal. Dr. Masiar Sistani is a researcher at the Institute for Solid State Electronics at TU Wien.
It is possible to control electrons and holes separately. Masiar Sistani says that germanium is a decisive advantage. The current flow increases when you apply voltage because germanium has a special electronic structure. Negative differential resistance is when the current flow decreases again after a certain threshold. We can change the threshold at which it lies with the help of the control electrode. This results in new degrees of freedom that we can use to give the transistor the properties that we need.
A logic not-and gate can be switched to a logic neither-nor gate in this way. The intelligence of electronics has been derived from the interplay of several transistors, each of which had a fairly primitive function. Prof. Walter Weber says that in the future intelligence can be transferred to the new transistor. The ability to perform computations with 24 transistors is due to increased adaptability. The circuits can be significantly increased in this way.
Prof. Weber's research group has only been at TU Wien for a couple of years. Prof. Walter Weber has made a name for himself with his work on reconfigurable electronics. Dr. Masiar Sistani is an expert in germanium electronics and has specialized in researching electronic transport phenomena. The two areas of expertise are perfect to make the germanium transistor possible. The basic idea of the transistor has been proven to work with it. Masiar Sistani says that this is a decisive breakthrough.
There is artificial intelligence.
These new possibilities are particularly interesting for applications in the field of artificial intelligence. Walter Weber says that it is now possible to change circuits directly on the chip. Multivalued logic can be implemented in this way, so that it works with 0 and 1 but with a larger number of possible states.
The materials used in the Semiconductor industry are already used in a rapid industrial application of this new technology. The technology would be simpler than before, because today's materials are enriched with foreign atoms. Pure germanium can be used with the germanium-based transistor.
Masiar Sistani says that they don't want to completely replace the previous transistor technology with their new transistor. The new technology is likely to be added to computer chips in the future. It will be more energy efficient to use adaptive transistors.
Masiar Sistani and his team provide Ge-Based Adaptable Transistors Providing Negative Differential Resistance Enabling Multivalued Logic. The title is "acsnano.1c06801."
The journal has information about the ACS Nano.
The nanometer-scale adaptive transistor was retrieved from the news atphys.org on 1 December 2021.
The document is copyrighted. Any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research cannot be reproduced without written permission. The content is not intended to be used for anything other than information purposes.
