NCKU develops pioneering transistor technology

2015-02-09

An international team headed by Tainan City-based National Cheng Kung University has developed the world’s first functional spin field-effect transistor for information processing.

Expected to accelerate the progress of semiconductor development ahead of the two-year doubling of computer power as defined by Moore’s law, the transistor’s creation has met with widespread acclaim and generated considerable interest in the academic and private sectors.

Team leader Chen Tse-ming from NCKU’s Department of Physics said Feb. 5 that since spin FET was first proposed in 1990, it has been seen as a game changer in the development of information technology. “But spin FET failed to materialize due to technical challenges such as low spin-injection efficiency, spin relaxation and spread of spin precession angles.”

According to Chen, the perseverance of team members Chuang Po-jen and Ho Sheng-chin—both doctoral students under his supervision—and researchers from the U.K.’s Cavendish Laboratory and University College London, enabled a solution to finally be found.

“The key was in the spin-orbit coupling of two quantum point contacts as spin injector and detector,” he said, adding that in this way, complete control of electron spins in a purely electrical manner was achieved.

“What we have now is the first all-electric, all-semiconductor spin EFT, as opposed to old solutions using magnetic or optical elements, which pose considerable challenges for the transistor to be incorporated into integrated circuits,” Chen said.

Fully compatible with large-scale ICs, the soon-to-be-patented invention is expected to find numerous application uses in information processing.

“Compared with Intel’s current-generation 10 nanometer-class chips utilizing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology,” Chen said, “spin FET is capable of delivering 1,000 times the performance with only one-tenth of power.”

The development, first published online by science journal Nature Nanotechnology Dec. 22, is expected to help NCKU better tap the highly lucrative US$250 billion global IC industry.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=227247&CtNode=413)