Loading...
News Article

BN transistor has 'superlative properties'

News
MIT team says ultrathin material enables superfast switching and extreme durability

MIT researchers and colleagues have used the 2D compound semiconductor boron nitride (BN) to build a transistor that has "superlative" properties. The work 'Ultrafast high-endurance memory based on sliding ferroelectrics' was reported in a recent issue of Science.

In 2021, a team led by MIT physicists created an ultrathin BN-based ferroelectric material; one where positive and negative charges separate into different layers. At the time they noted the material’s potential for applications in computer memory and much more. Now the same core team and colleagues — including two from the lab next door — have built a transistor with the material.

Although the team’s results are based on a single transistor in the lab, “in several aspects its properties already meet or exceed industry standards” for the ferroelectric transistors produced today, says Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics, who led the work with professor of physics Raymond Ashoori. Both are also affiliated with the Materials Research Laboratory.

The new transistor can switch rapidly between positive and negative charges on nanosecond time scales. It is also extremely tough: after 100 billion switches it still worked with no signs of degradation. And because the material is so thin, it could allow for much denser computer memory storage and more energy-efficient transistors, say the researchers.

The new ferroelectric material reported in 2021 is based on atomically thin sheets of boron nitride that are stacked parallel to each other, a configuration that doesn’t exist in nature. In bulk BN, the individual layers of BN are instead rotated by 180 degrees.

It turns out that when an electric field is applied to this parallel stacked configuration, one layer of the new BN material slides over the other, slightly changing the positions of the boron and nitrogen atoms.

“So the miracle is that by sliding the two layers a few angstroms, you end up with radically different electronics,” says Ashoori. The diameter of an atom is about 1 angstrom.

“Nothing wears out in the sliding,” Ashoori continues. That’s why the new transistor could be switched 100 billion times without degrading. Compare that to the memory in a flash drive made with conventional materials. “Each time you write and erase a flash memory, you get some degradation,” says Ashoori. “Over time, it wears out, which means that you have to use some very sophisticated methods for distributing where you’re reading and writing on the chip.” The new material could make those steps obsolete.

Challenges remain. For example, the current way of producing the new ferroelectrics is difficult and not conducive to mass manufacturing. “We made a single transistor as a demonstration. If people could grow these materials on the wafer scale, we could create many, many more,” says co-first author Kenji Yasuda, now an assistant professor at Cornell University. He notes that different groups are already working to that end.

Concludes Ashoori, “There are a few problems. But if you solve them, this material fits in so many ways into potential future electronics. It’s very exciting.”

This work was supported by the US Army Research Office, the MIT/Microsystems Technology Laboratories Samsung Semiconductor Research Fund, the US National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Ramon Areces Foundation, the Basic Energy Sciences program of the US Department of Energy, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan.

Ascent wins order for power beaming Space PV module
Navitas Partners with Great Wall for 400V-DC power
SemiQ supplies SiC MOSFET modules for EV battery cell cyclers
Coherent and Keysight collaborate on 200G/lane multimode VCSEL tech
Lumentum and Marvell exhibit integrated 450G optical interface
Marktech announces new MWIR LEDS
Imec identifies stable range for GaN MISHEMTs in RF PAs
Polar Light completes $3.4m funding round
Lynred launches advanced thermal imaging modules
Altum RF expands Sydney design centre
Sivers announces partnership with O-Net
Ayar Labs unveils first UCIe optical chiplet
Aixtron delivers InP tool to Nokia
WHU-USTC team demo novel temperature monitoring of GaN device
Phlux lands £9m to take InGaAs sensors to next level
4-inch gallium oxide facility established in Swansea
Mazda and Rohm collaborate on automotive GaN
University of South Carolina chooses MOCVD tool from TNSC
Wolfspeed appoints new CEO amidst funding crisis
SiC slowdown is only short term, says Yole
Pragmatic launches flexible IGZO-based NFC chip
Poet ships latest optical engine samples
EU project to develop 1200V DC powertrain
£250m to turbocharge Welsh compound semi cluster
Scientists harness phonon-polariton electroluminescence
TU Graz team reveals the secrets of heat conduction
Aixtron to partner in ‘GraFunkL‘ UVC project
EU collaboration steps up heterogeneous design
Diodes Inc announces InSb sensors
Far-UVC module targets close-quarters disinfection
Sivers and WIN collaborate on DFB laser production
Boosting the blocking voltage of birectional HEMTs
×
Search the news archive

To close this popup you can press escape or click the close icon.
Logo
x
Logo
×
Register - Step 1

You may choose to subscribe to the Compound Semiconductor Magazine, the Compound Semiconductor Newsletter, or both. You may also request additional information if required, before submitting your application.


Please subscribe me to:

 

You chose the industry type of "Other"

Please enter the industry that you work in:
Please enter the industry that you work in:
 
Adblocker Detected
Please consider unblocking adverts on this website