April 29, 2008 - Transistors are a basic building block in electronic devices, where they amplify weak electric currents. Now researchers in Sweden have developed a new transistor - the first to be developed using nanotechnology - that is 50 times more energy efficient than today’s models.

“This kind of transistor should be able to reduce energy consumption in mobile phones and computers, for example, so they wouldn’t have to be recharged so often. What’s more, it can pave the way for communicating in frequencies that are too high for today’s technology,” says Lars-Erik Wernersson, an engineering professor at Sweden's Lund University.

For some time researchers have been stymied by the fact that transistors can’t be reduced any further in size without overheating, since the electrons release so much energy.

“But our model is made up of indium arsenide, where the electrons move more easily compared with silicon, the conventional semiconductor material in transistors. Actually, it’s hard to produce transistors with indium arsenide, but if we apply nanotechnology, it’s rather simple,” explains Lars-Erik Wernersson.

Ultimately Lars-Erik Wernersson and his colleagues hope to develop transistors that can communicate in entirely new frequency areas. Today’s electric appliances use 3–10 gigahertz (GHz). The hope is to reach 60 GHz, which is a considerably broader frequency range.

“With 60 GHz you can only communicate across short differences and not through walls, for instance. But this new frequency range can rationalize wireless communication in the home, for example when you download a film or communicate between TVs and projectors. We know for sure that such electric appliances will be integrated more and more in the future,” he adds.

The new transistor is described in the latest issue of Electron Device Letters.