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Metal–oxide–semiconductors

Ultrathin channels make transistors go faster

Nature Materials volume 18, pages 1033–1034 (2019)Cite this article

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Reducing the thickness of an amorphous conductive indium tin oxide layer down to a few nanometres has enabled the realization of 40-nm-long channel transistors with remarkable operating characteristics.

Many of our modern day electronics are slowly diverging from their traditional forms to new shapes and sizes, creating new technology strands1,2,3,4,5. One example is the large-area electronics that, unlike traditional integrated circuits (ICs), exploit semiconductors that can be processed over a broad range of large-size substrates, including flexible, stretchable or transparent ones, for a variety of emerging applications2,3,4,5. Historically, these technologies have been demarcated by the level of performance attainable by their common building block — the field-effect transistor. State-of-the-art ICs rely mostly on silicon transistors that combine superb operating characteristics with a small footprint, both enabled by continuous channel downscaling2. In contrast, large-area electronics exploit transistor technologies based on semiconductors with relatively modest performance but that can be manufactured reliably over large substrates3,4,5.

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Fig. 1: Transistor structure and the impact of materials and parameters scaling on operating characteristics.

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  1. KAUST Solar Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Thomas D. Anthopoulos

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  1. Thomas D. Anthopoulos
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Correspondence to Thomas D. Anthopoulos.

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Anthopoulos, T.D. Ultrathin channels make transistors go faster. Nat. Mater. 18, 1033–1034 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0489-y

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