A new electrode material could help tomorrow's transistors sip power

Every computer chip is a city of switches, and the electrode that controls each switch shapes how much energy it uses. Researchers at KAIST in South Korea have developed a new gate-electrode material and shown it can control current across three different semiconductor channels, matching a conventional platinum electrode's switching behaviour in a side-by-side device, according to a study in Advanced Materials. They built an array of 23 transistors on one surface — patterning all the electrodes in a single step — and all 23 worked; one device held its performance through 400 switching cycles, and another still worked after about a year stored in ordinary air. The team is careful about the claim: this does not yet prove lower power use. Next come tests of lower-voltage operation and larger-scale production — the unglamorous steps between a promising material and a thriftier chip.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation