Researchers have created a more feasible way to combine transistors and memory on a chip, potentially bringing faster computing. (Purdue University photo/Vincent Walter)
Researchers solve decades-old challenge of building a functional transistor integrated with ferroelectric RAM
A computer chip processes and stores information using two different devices. If engineers could combine these devices into one or put them next to each other, then there would be more space on a chip, making it faster and more powerful.
Purdue University engineers have developed a way that the millions of tiny switches used to process information – called transistors – could also store that information as one device.
The method, detailed in a paper published in Nature Electronics, accomplishes this by solving another problem: combining a transistor with higher-performing memory technology than is used in most computers, called ferroelectric RAM.
Researchers have been trying for decades to integrate the two, but issues happen at the interface between a ferroelectric material and silicon, the semiconductor material that makes up transistors. Instead, ferroelectric RAM operates as a separate unit on-chip, limiting its potential to make computing much more efficient.
A team led by Peide Ye, the Richard J. and Mary Jo Schwartz Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue, discovered how to overcome the mortal enemy relationship between silicon and a ferroelectric material.
“We used a semiconductor that has ferroelectric properties. This way two materials become one material, and you don’t have to worry about the interface issues,” Ye said.
The result is a so-called ferroelectric semiconductor field-effect transistor, built in the same way as transistors currently used on computer chips.
The material, alpha indium selenide, not only has ferroelectric properties, but also addresses the issue of a conventional ferroelectric material usually acting as an insulator rather than a semiconductor due to a so-called wide “band gap,” which means that electricity cannot pass through and no computing happens.
Alpha indium selenide has a much smaller band gap, making it possible for the material to be a semiconductor without losing ferroelectric properties.
Mengwei Si, a Purdue postdoctoral researcher in electrical and computer engineering, built and tested the transistor, finding that its performance was comparable to existing ferroelectric field-effect transistors, and could exceed them with more optimization. Sumeet Gupta, a Purdue assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Ph.D. candidate Atanu Saha provided modeling support.
Si and Ye’s team also worked with researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to build alpha indium selenide into a space on a chip, called a ferroelectric tunneling junction, which engineers could use to enhance a chip’s capabilities. The team presents this work on Dec. 9 at the 2019 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting.
In the past, researchers hadn’t been able to build a high-performance ferroelectric tunneling junction because its wide band gap made the material too thick for electrical current to pass through. Since alpha indium selenide has a much smaller band gap, the material can be just 10 nanometers thick, allowing more current to flow through it.
More current allows a device area to scale down to several nanometers, making chips more dense and energy efficient, Ye said. A thinner material – even down to an atomic layer thick – also means that the electrodes on either side of a tunneling junction can be much smaller, which would be useful for building circuits that mimic networks in the human brain.
Learn more: Reorganizing a computer chip: Transistors can now both process and store information
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Ferroelectric semiconductor field-effect transistor
- Perspective on Ferroelectric Devices: Lessons from Interfacial Chemistry†
In this context, emerging semiconductor devices based on fluorite-structured oxide ferroelectrics, including ferroelectric field-effect transistors, ferroelectric random-access memories, and ...
- field effect transistor
There is another family of transistors which have analogous circuit configurations to their bipolar cousins but work in a completely different way: the Field Effect Transistors, or FETs.
- Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor Crossword Answer
The word puzzle answer metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor has these clues in the Sporcle Puzzle Library. Explore the crossword clues and related quizzes to this answer. 1 result for ...
- Fraunhofer-Institut für Siliziumtechnologie ISIT
The Power Electronics business focuses on developing advanced active and passive power semiconductor components based on ... Recently, scientists at ISIT discovered the ferroelectric properties of ...
- Global Tunnel Field Effect Transistor Market Is Expected to Reach $2.5 Billion by 2031: Allied Market Research
Leading players of the global tunnel field effect transistor market analyzed in the research include Advanced Linear Devices, Inc., Qorvo, Inc, Axcera, Infineon Technologies, Fairchild Semiconductor ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Ferroelectric semiconductor field-effect transistor
[google_news title=”” keyword=”ferroelectric semiconductor field-effect transistor” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Transistors and memory on a chip
- Embedded Non-Volatile Memory (ENVM) Market : An Exclusive Study On Upcoming Trends And Growth Opportunities From 2023-2028
Report Pages] Embedded Non-Volatile Memory (ENVM) Market Analysis 2023 (Pre and Post Covid is covered and Report Customization is available) | by Product Type (eFlash, eEEPROM, eFRAM, eMRAM, Others), ...
- The Futuristic View of Semiconductors
The Futuristic View of Semiconductors - Technology as the disruptor has overhauled significant industries globally, and it has been the same ...
- Researchers Turn Transistors into High-Frequency Clock Sources
Researchers from Purdue University have demonstrated a new technique for turning regular transistors used in microprocessors into high-frequency clock sources, something that may help reduce supply ...
- M2 Pro and M2 Max: next-generation chips
Apple has announced the M2 Pro and M2 Max, two next-generation SoCs (systems on a chip) that take the breakthrough power-efficient performance of Apple silicon to new heights. M2 Pro scales up the ...
- Inside the global battle over chip manufacturing
Laser beams and plasma hotter than the Sun have heated up the chip war. Professor Chris Miller explains what’s happening.
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Transistors and memory on a chip
[google_news title=”” keyword=”transistors and memory on a chip” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
