Now researchers in Ireland have succeeded in making the first junctionless transistor ever. The device, which resembles a structure first proposed way back in 1925 but not realized until now, has nearly "ideal" electrical properties, according to the team. It could potentially operate faster and use less power than any conventional transistor on the market today.
Transistors are the fundamental building blocks of modern electronic devices – and all existing transistors contain semiconductor junctions. The most common type of junction is the p–n junction transistors, which is formed by the contact between a p-type piece of silicon – doped with impurities to create an excess of holes – and an n-type piece of silicon, doped to create an excess of electrons. Other junctions include the heterojunction, which is simply a p–n junction containing 2 different semiconductors, and the Schottky junction between metal and semiconductor.
The number of transistors on a single silicon microchip has been increasing exponentially since the early 1970s, and has gone up from a few hundred to over several billion today. So transistors are becoming so tiny that it is becoming increasingly difficult to create high-quality junctions. In particular, it is very difficult to change the doping concentration of a material over distances shorter than about 10 nm. Junctionless transistors could therefore help chipmakers continue to make smaller and smaller devices.
Transistors are the fundamental building blocks of modern electronic devices – and all existing transistors contain semiconductor junctions. The most common type of junction is the p–n junction transistors, which is formed by the contact between a p-type piece of silicon – doped with impurities to create an excess of holes – and an n-type piece of silicon, doped to create an excess of electrons. Other junctions include the heterojunction, which is simply a p–n junction containing 2 different semiconductors, and the Schottky junction between metal and semiconductor.
The number of transistors on a single silicon microchip has been increasing exponentially since the early 1970s, and has gone up from a few hundred to over several billion today. So transistors are becoming so tiny that it is becoming increasingly difficult to create high-quality junctions. In particular, it is very difficult to change the doping concentration of a material over distances shorter than about 10 nm. Junctionless transistors could therefore help chipmakers continue to make smaller and smaller devices.
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