Transistors of the future

The fast pace of growing computing power could be sustained for many years to come due to new research from Britain's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) that is applying advanced techniques to magnetic semiconductors.

Moore's Law says the density of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years. Components have shrunk over time to achieve this, but experts believe that when the characteristic transistor size reduces below 20 nm, heating and quantum effects will become so severe that the present design of transistors would be of no practical use.

Scientists at NPL have been researching single crystalline manganese-doped Ge germanium nanowires. These display ferromagnetism above 300 K, good performance with respect to the hole mobility of around 340 cm²/Vs and other industrially relevant parameters, demonstrating the potential of using these nanowires as building blocks for electronic devices.

The solution lies in changing not only the material but also the architecture of transistors. NPL has worked mainly with magnetically doped germanium nanowires.

The resulting transistors and electronic devices could realistically be 10 years away.

The work is a result of close collaboration between scientists in Ireland (UCC and Trinity College), the US (Intel and the University of California) and NPL.