Silicon Out! Indium Gallium Arsenide In?
"Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plan to present research on transistor technology next week that they hope will jumpstart a new development phase in tiny electronics beyond the iPod and the cell phone. Read on to find out more...
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Published: 9th December 2006 | Source: N/A |
News <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ufo1.com/ad/c.js"></script> Posted 09/12/2006
Author: PV5150
Source: CNET NEWS.com
Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plan to present research on transistor technology next week that they hope will jumpstart a new development phase in tiny electronics beyond the iPod and the cell phone. MIT engineers estimate that silicon transistors, essential to gadgets like iPods, phones and kitchen appliances, will hit a wall in terms of size and performance within the next 10 to 15 years. So MIT, among others, is working with new composite materials it hopes will be able to reliably outpace the conducting speed of silicon.
One such material is indium gallium arsenide, or InGaAs, a material in which electrons travel many times faster than in silicon. MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) recently demonstrated InGaAs-fabricated transistors that can carry 2.5 times more current than the latest silicon devices. The transistor was only 60 nanometers, or billionths of a meter long. The benefit could lead to smaller devices that can process information more quickly.
"Each of us has several billion transistors working on our behalf every day in our phone, laptop, iPod, car, kitchen and more," said Jesus del Alamo, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and member of the MTL. "We are looking at new semiconductor materials for transistors that will continue to improve in performance, while devices get smaller and smaller," he said in a statement.
The transistor technology is young, and researchers must work through some challenges. For example, InGaAs can break more often than silicon so manufacturing the transistors in bulk could be difficult. Still, del Alamo expects that a prototype of these InGaAs microdevices will be developed in the next two years. Apparently Intel, one of the lab's sponsors, is encouraged by the results.
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Bah, it rains (Tel-Aviv area).
Bah, it rains (Tel-Aviv area).
huh?
my internet's was a bit wishing washy yesterday. pretty sure it was due to the weather in london.
[QUOTE=NickS]I was just watching The Weather Channel and I saw that there was quite the tornado in the London area!! Is everyone safe and ok? They said quite a few houses were damaged (150+). No deaths thank god, but six injuries.
I didn't know UK got many tornados since its so densely populated, its hard for a tornado to touch down when theres no flat open land.[/QUOTE]
saw the news it said 6 people died many houses the roofs got ripped off :eek:
Hope you guys are ok :eek:
I didn't know UK got many tornados since its so densely populated, its hard for a tornado to touch down when theres no flat open land.[/QUOTE]
saw the news it said 6 people died many houses the roofs got ripped off :eek:
Hope you guys are ok :eek:
XMS checking in.
Yeah its really wierd to have tornado's here, but they are becoming more common which is a bit worrying :eek:
Yeah its really wierd to have tornado's here, but they are becoming more common which is a bit worrying :eek:
in malta we have small ones on sea which are quite often but rarely on land, lately we have been having some pretty bad weather , very violent thunder storms whit gale force winds or more :eek: . The london thing is strange, a tornado in the middle of a city, well seems global warming is showing us what it can do:(
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I didn't know UK got many tornados since its so densely populated, its hard for a tornado to touch down when theres no flat open land.