Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich have fabricated a new type of transistor from a germanium–tin alloy that has several advantages over conventional switching elements. Charge carriers can move faster in the material than in silicon or germanium, which enables lower voltages in operation. The transistor thus appears to be a promising candidate for future low-power, high-performance chips, and possibly also for the development of future of quantum computers.
Over the past 70 years, the number of transistors on a chip has doubled approximately every two years—according to Moore's Law, which is still valid today. The circuits have become correspondingly smaller, but an end to this development appears to be in sight.
"We have now reached a stage where structures are only 2 to 3 nanometers in size. This is approximately equal to the diameter of 10 atoms, which takes us to the limits of what is feasible. It doesn't get much smaller than this," says Qing-Tai Zhao of the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-9) at Forschungszentrum Jülich.
In an era marked by an escalating energy crisis, the world stands on the precipice of a transformative revolution in spintronics technology, promising ultra-low power consumption paired with superior performance. To illustrate the potential, consider this: the power consumed by AlphaGo during its famous Go game in 2016 equaled the daily power use of 100 households. By 2021, Tesla's autonomous driving AI required over ten times that amount of power for learning.
In response to this growing demand, the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has pioneered the world's first transistor capable of controlling skyrmions. This breakthrough paves the way for the development of next-generation ultra-low-power devices and is anticipated to make significant contributions to quantum and AI research. The findings are published in the journal Advanced Materials.
Transistors, semiconducting devices that regulate, amplify and generate the flow of electrical current, are central components of most electronics. Electronics engineers have been trying to develop increasingly smaller transistors, as this could support the fabrication of more compact devices.
Shrinking transistors, however, can adversely impact their energy consumption, as certain challenges can arise, such as short-channel effects and the leakage of current caused by a quantum mechanical phenomenon known as quantum tunneling. The energy consumption of smaller transistors could potentially be decreased by leveraging the negative differential capacitance (NDC) of ferroelectric materials.
NDC is a phenomenon that occurs in ferroelectrics, where a change in charge causes the net voltage across a material to shift to the opposite direction, so that an increase in charge prompts a decrease in voltage. One ferroelectric material that could be used to realize this is ferroelectric hafnium dioxide (HfO2) or hafnia.
Advanced communication technologies, such as the fifth generation (5G) mobile network and the internet of things (IoT) can greatly benefit from devices that can support wireless communications while consuming a minimum amount of power. As most existing devices have separate components to perform computations and transmit data, reducing their energy consumption can be challenging.
Researchers at Nanjing University, Southeast University and Purple Mountain Laboratories in China recently devised a parallel in-memory wireless computing scheme that performs computations and wireless transmission concurrently on the same hardware. This design, introduced in Nature Electronics, is based on the use of mermristive crossbar arrays, grid-like structures containing memristors, electrical components that can both process and store data.
In recent years, electronics engineers have been trying to develop new brain-inspired hardware that can run artificial intelligence (AI) models more efficiently. While most existing hardware is specialized in either sensing, processing or storing data, some teams have been exploring the possibility of combining these three functionalities in a single device.
Researchers at Xi'an Jiaotong University, the University of Hong Kong and Xi'an University of Science and Technology introduced a new organic transistor that can act as a sensor and processor. This transistor, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, is based on a vertical traverse architecture and a crystalline-amorphous channel that can be selectively doped by ions, allowing it to switch between two reconfigurable modes.
Recent advancements in the field of electronics have enabled the creation of smaller and increasingly sophisticated devices, including wearable technologies, biosensors, medical implants, and soft robots. Most of these technologies are based on stretchy materials with electronic properties.
While material scientists have already introduced a wide range of flexible materials that could be used to create electronics, many of these materials are fragile and can be easily damaged. As damage to materials can result in their failure, while also compromising the overall functioning of the system they are integrated in, several existing soft and conductive materials can end up being unreliable and unsuitable for large-scale implementations.
Researchers at Harbin University of Science and Technology in China recently developed a new conductive and self-healing hydrogel that could be used to create flexible sensors for wearables, robots or other devices. This material and its composition was outlined in the Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices.
Using only a single light source, scientists have set a world record by transmitting 1.8 petabits per second. Their data transmission method uses significantly less power and can help reduce the Internet’s climate footprint.
An international group of researchers from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden have achieved dizzying data transmission speeds and are the first in the world to transmit more than 1 petabit per second (Pbit/s) using only a single laser and a single optical chip.
In the experiment, the researchers succeeded in transmitting 1.8 Pbit/s, which corresponds to twice the total global Internet traffic. And only carried by the light from one optical source. The light source is a custom-designed optical chip, which can use the light from a single infrared laser to create a rainbow spectrum of many colours, i.e. many frequencies. Thus, the one frequency (colour) of a single laser can be multiplied into hundreds of frequencies (colours) in a single chip.
All the colours are fixed at a specific frequency distance from each other - just like the teeth on a comb - which is why it is called a frequency comb. Each colour (or frequency) can then be isolated and used to imprint data. The frequencies can then be reassembled and sent over an optical fibre, thus transmitting data. Even a huge volume of data, as the researchers have discovered.
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The researchers’ solution bodes well for the future power consumption of the Internet.
“In other words, our solution provides a potential for replacing hundreds of thousands of the lasers located at Internet hubs and data centres, all of which guzzle power and generate heat. We have an opportunity to contribute to achieving an Internet that leaves a smaller climate footprint,” says Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe.
Even though the researchers have broken the petabit barrier for a single laser source and a single chip in their demonstration, there is still some development work ahead before the solution can be implemented in our current communication systems, according to Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe.
“All over the world, work is being done to integrate the laser source in the optical chip, and we’re working on that as well. The more components we can integrate in the chip, the more efficient the whole transmitter will be. I.e. laser, comb-creating chip, data modulators, and any amplifier elements. It will be an extremely efficient optical transmitter of data signals,” says Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe.
(Eurekalert) Recent research at the Technion lays the ground for future high-performance alternatives to silicon in microelectronics. By stretching an oxide material at an atomic level, the researchers are able to control its conductivity, a milestone advancement towards making efficient switches, which are the basic building blocks of computer chips.
Researchers in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering have demonstrated control over an emerging material, which they consider as a possible future alternative to silicon in microelectronics. This is a timely development, because scientists and engineers face challenges in continuing the transistor shrinking trend, an important driver of computer chip performance.
California Governor Signs Right to Repair Act Into Law
Device and appliance manufacturers will now have to make tools, parts, software, and documentation publicly accessible on or before July 1, 2024.
By Adrianna Nine October 12, 2023 https://www.extremetech.com/electronics ... t-into-law
California has officially adopted a major right-to-repair bill into law. SB 244, the Right to Repair Act, will require most electronics and appliance manufacturers to enable self-repair through extensive documentation and parts offerings. Senators Susan Eggman, Bill Dodd, and Nancy Skinner introduced SB 244 on Jan. 25 following a national movement to promote self-repair. The text went through a few amendments before passing the California Senate 38-0 in May, then the California State Assembly 50-0 in September. After that, the bill floated up to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. On Tuesday, Newsom signed SB 244 into law.
Research unveils stretchable high-resolution user-interactive synesthesia displays for visual–acoustic encryption https://techxplore.com/news/2023-10-unv ... hesia.html
by JooHyeon Heo, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology
The future of human-machine interfaces is on the cusp of a revolution with the unveiling of a groundbreaking technology—a stretchable high-resolution multicolor synesthesia display that generates synchronized sound and light as input/output sources. A research team, led by Professor Moon Kee Choi in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UNIST, has succeeded in developing this cutting-edge display using transfer-printing techniques, propelling the field of multifunctional displays into new realms of possibility.
The team's research is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials
"Superatomic" material beats silicon for fastest semiconductor ever
By Michael Irving
October 31, 2023
Scientists have found that a “superatomic” material is the fastest and most efficient semiconductor ever. Taking advantage of a tortoise-and-hare mechanism, the new material can transport energy much faster than silicon.
Semiconductors are the beating heart of electronic devices, and silicon reigns supreme. These materials form the basis of transistors and integrated circuits, which themselves lay the foundation for smartphones to supercomputers and everything in between.
Now, scientists at Columbia University have found a new semiconductor material that seems to outperform all the rest. Known as Re6Se8Cl2, the material is made up of a mix of rhenium, selenium and chlorine, the atoms of which cluster together and behave like one big atom – a “superatom.” And this is where it gets its speed.
In any material, the atomic structure gives off tiny vibrations that travel as quantum particles called phonons, which can scatter energy-carrying particles like electrons or excitons. This energy is quickly lost as heat, and managing it is a constant hurdle in designing electronic chips and systems.
For more than 50 years, the semiconductor industry has been hard at work developing advanced technologies that have led to the amazing increases in computing power and energy efficiency that have improved our lives. A primary way the industry has achieved these remarkable performance gains has been by finding ways to decrease the size of the semiconductor devices in microchips. However, with semiconductor feature sizes now approaching only a few nanometers—just a few hundred atoms—it has become increasingly challenging to sustain continued device miniaturization.
To address the challenges associated with fabricating even smaller microchip components, the semiconductor industry is currently transitioning to a more powerful fabrication method—extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. EUV lithography employs light that is only 13.5 nanometers in wavelength to form tiny circuit patterns in a photoresist, the light-sensitive material integral to the lithography process.
The photoresist is the template for forming the nanoscale circuit patterns in the silicon semiconductor. As EUV lithography begins paving the way for the future, scientists are faced with the hurdle of identifying the most effective resist materials for this new era of nanofabrication.
In an effort to address this need, a team of scientists at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory—has designed a new light-sensitive, organic–inorganic hybrid material that enables high-performance patternability by EUV lithography. Their results were recently published in Advanced Materials Interfaces.
White House releases plan to grow radio spectrum access, with possible benefits for internet, drones
Source: AP
Updated 11:03 AM EST, November 13, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Monday announced a strategy to potentially expand the availability of radio spectrum needed for cellphones, satellites, navigation, space travel and other emerging technologies.
The increasingly digitized and mobile economy has put pressure on the available range of frequencies used for wireless communication. The spectrum is also vital for national security and responding to disasters.
“We all understand the spectrum is crowded, demand is growing fast,” said Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “This is a way to break through the limitations of today.”
The strategy will help to coordinate and guide how spectrum is allocated by the Federal Communications Commission, an independent government agency.
As information and communication technologies (ICT) process data, they convert electricity into heat. Already today, the global ICT ecosystem's CO2 footprint rivals that of aviation. It turns out, however, that a big part of the energy consumed by computer processors doesn't go into performing calculations. Instead, the bulk of the energy used to process data is spent shuttling bytes between the memory to the processor.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Electronics, researchers from EPFL's School of Engineering in the Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES) present a new processor that tackles this inefficiency by integrating data processing and storage onto a single device, a so-called in-memory processor.
They broke new ground by creating the first in-memory processor based on a two-dimensional semiconductor material to comprise more than 1,000 transistors, a key milestone on the path to industrial production.
Von Neuman's legacy
According to Andras Kis, who led the study, the main culprit behind the inefficiency of today's CPUs is the universally adopted von Neumann architecture. Specifically, the physical separation of the components used to perform calculations and to store data. Because of this separation, processors need to retrieve data from the memory to perform calculations, which involves moving electrical charges, charging and discharging capacitors, and transmitting currents along lines—all of which dissipate energy.
Until around 20 years ago, this architecture made sense, as different types of devices were required for data storage and processing. But the von Neumann architecture is increasingly being challenged by more efficient alternatives.
"Today, there are ongoing efforts to merge storage and processing into a more universal in-memory processors that contain elements which work both as a memory and as a transistor," Kis explains. His lab has been exploring ways to achieve this goal using molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a semiconductor material.
A team of bioengineers from Lanzhou University, Dalian University of Technology and Qinghai Normal University, all in China, working with a pair of colleagues from Pennsylvania State University in the U.S., have developed a soft, implantable supercapacitor that can power implantable devices. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes how their supercapacitor was made and its performance during testing.
Prior research has shown that implantable devices can be developed for use in monitoring or treating a variety of ailments. Unfortunately, the means to power such devices is still lagging. In this new study, the research team developed a new way to power such devices by using a supercapacitor instead of a battery. A supercapacitor, unlike batteries, stores electricity in its electrical form; batteries store chemical energy—this makes supercapacitors not only more flexible, but lighter.
Researchers at the University of Sydney Nano Institute have invented a compact silicon semiconductor chip that integrates electronics with photonic, or light, components. The new technology significantly expands radio-frequency (RF) bandwidth and the ability to accurately control information flowing through the unit.
Expanded bandwidth means more information can flow through the chip and the inclusion of photonics allows for advanced filter controls, creating a versatile new semiconductor device.
Researchers expect the chip will have applications in advanced radar, satellite systems, wireless networks and the roll-out of 6G and 7G telecommunications and also open the door to advanced sovereign manufacturing. It could also assist in the creation of high-tech value-add factories at places like Western Sydney's Aerotropolis precinct.
Professor Ji-woong Yang at the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology has successfully developed the world's highest-performance eco-friendly quantum dot photosensor that does not require any external power source.
It was confirmed that the eco-friendly quantum dot photonic sensor developed through joint research with Professor Moon-kee Choi's research team at the Department of New Materials Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and Professor Dae-hyeong Kim's research team at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Seoul National University (President Hong-lim Ryu) can stably measure light signals without any external power source, due to the photovoltaic effect.
TSMC Says It Expects to Produce 1nm Transistors by 2030
The company also said it expects to have 1 trillion transistors on a single package by then as well.
By Josh Norem December 28, 2023
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/t ... rs-by-2030
TSMC has updated its roadmap of sorts, laying out what its semiconductor goals are for the future, stretching all the way to the year 2030. It's kind of a like a corporate vision board, showcasing its plans for ambitious designs that will allow for up to a trillion transistors to be used in a single package. At the same time, it also highlighted its plans to eventually arrive at a watershed metric in semiconductor manufacturing; the production of 1nm transistors.
The company showed off its plans at the recent IEDM conference, and published a roadmap laying out its plans for the future. At the very end of the road lies some truly tantalizing chips, with TSMC stating it will be possible to put a trillion chips on a package using multiple 3D-stacked chiplets. Coincidentally, Intel has also previously stated it thinks one trillion transistors on a package should be possible by 2030 as well. Its CEO, Pat Gelsinger, said last year it envisions using chiplets and advanced packaging technologies to put a trillion transistors on a package while also using chiplets, or tiles in Intel parlance.
Organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors (OMIECs) are a highly sought-after class of materials for non-conventional applications, such as bioelectronics, neuromorphic computing, and bio-fuel cells, due to their two-in-one electronic and ionic conduction properties.
To ensure a much wider acceptance of these fascinating materials, there is a need to diversify their properties and develop techniques that allow application-specific tailoring of the features of OMIEC-based devices.
A crucial aspect of this process is to develop strategies for evaluating the various properties of these materials. However, despite the increasing popularity of OMIECs, there is a severe lack of research on the molecular orientation-dependent transient behaviors of such conductors.
Now, however, an international team of researchers from Korea and the U.K., led by Professor Myung-Han Yoon from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, set out to bridge this gap in our understanding of organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors.
In their recent study published in Nature Communications on 28 November 2023, the team explored peculiar transient behaviors of OMIECs governed by variations in molecular orientation with the help of an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT).
