Hybrid transistor combines high speed and low power

Science News : Transistors are one of the most important components of circuits thanks to their ability to control and amplify electrical signals. One of the most common types is the MOSFET . Those transistors are widely used because of the speed at which their gates open and close. And technology advances have allowed MOSFETs to be shrunk to the point that they can take advantage of quantum tunneling effects and let single electrons cross the gates. However, that requires a significant amount of additional energy, much of which is wasted. The newer tunneling FET (TFET) is much slower to operate than a MOSFET but requires much less energy to do so. Peng-Fei Wang at Fudan University in Shanghai and his colleagues have now combined the two types of transistors; the hybrid takes advantage of the low-power usage of the TFET while still achieving the high speeds of the MOSFET. In testing the new transistor, the researchers found that it remained reliably usable for far longer than current transistors. They hope to be able to incorporate the hybrid into commercial products soon.