A research team led by faculty scientist Ali Javey at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has created a transistor with a working 1-nanometer gate — the smallest to date.
The development could keep alive Intel co-founder Gordon Moore’s prediction that the density of transistors on integrated circuits would double every two years, enabling the increased performance of laptops, mobile devices, televisions, and other electronics.
The scientists used carbon nanotubes and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), an engine lubricant commonly sold in auto parts shops.
"Industry has been squeezing every last bit of capability out of silicon," said the study's lead author Sujay Desai. "By changing the material from silicon to MoS2, we can make a transistor with a gate that is just 1 nanometer in length, and operate it like a switch.”
Transistors consist of three terminals: a source, a drain, and a gate. Current flows from the source to the drain. The flow is controlled by the gate, which switches on and off in response to the voltage applied.
Because electrons flowing through MoS2 are heavier, their flow can be controlled with smaller gate lengths. MoS2 can also be scaled down to atomically thin sheets, about 0.65 nanometers thick, with a lower dielectric constant, a measurement reflecting the ability of a material to store energy in an electric field. Both of the properties, in addition to the mass of the electron, help improve the control of the flow of current inside the transistor when the gate length is reduced to 1 nanometer.
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