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Semiconductor physics

Quick-set thin films

Nature volume 428, pages 269–271 (2004)Cite this article

Transistors that have active components based on thin films, rather than silicon, are attractive for many applications. The latest thin-film fabrication technique has the potential for industrial-scale production.

The original working transistor, invented at Bell Labs in the 1940s, was based on semiconducting germanium and had a junction (sandwich) configuration. But by the 1960s, this design had given way to the simpler field-effect transistor — in particular, the silicon-based MOSFET (for metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor). A typical computer processor today contains around 42 million such transistors, and demand for ever-faster computers is only increasing. As a result, the market is pushing for a downsizing of transistor technology.

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Figure 1: Cross-section of a thin-film transistor.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, USA

    Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

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  1. Mercouri G. Kanatzidis
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Kanatzidis, M. Quick-set thin films. Nature 428, 269–271 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/428269a

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