At the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science, a group of researchers has taken a significant step forward by developing transistors that don’t rely on silicon. By blending gallium with indium oxide, they’ve created a material that allows electrons to move more freely. This innovation could help overcome the challenges faced as devices get smaller and traditional silicon shows its limits.
The team’s approach wraps the gate completely around the channel—the part that toggles the transistor on and off—enhancing both efficiency and scalability. “By wrapping the gate around the channel, we can enhance both performance and the potential for miniaturisation,” explained Anlan Chen from the IIS research team. If you’ve wrestled with the constraints of older transistor designs, this development offers a breath of fresh air.
To counter the known oxygen-vacancy issues of indium oxide, the researchers doped it with gallium. They used atomic-layer deposition to apply a thin coating of gallium-doped indium oxide (InGaOx) and then heated it to create a crystalline structure that supports smoother electron flow. The result is a metal oxide-based semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) with a gate-all-around design that achieves an electron mobility of 44.5 cm²/Vs.
Chen also noted, “We found that the device operates stably under stress for nearly three hours, which is promising for its eventual use in high-density electronics.” This accomplishment could pave the way for more reliable systems capable of handling the demands of artificial intelligence and big data processing. As we continue to push the limits of transistor miniaturisation, exploring alternatives to silicon becomes not only innovative but necessary.
