MIT physicists have created a transistor using a ferroelectric material that is ultrathin and separates positive and negative charges into different layers. The ferroelectric material is stacked in a parallel configuration and when an electric field is applied, the layers slightly slide over each other and alter the positions of boron and nitrogen atoms, dramatically changing the material's electronic properties.
The transistor showed no signs of degradation even after 100 billion switches. In comparison, conventional flash memory devices wear out quickly and require sophisticated methods to distribute read and write operations across the chip.
The ultrathin transistor — measuring only billionths of a meter in thickness — opens up possibilities for much denser computer memory storage and more energy-efficient transistors.
Such dense memory storage and energy-efficient transistor are particularly important for AI applications that require huge processing power.
Of particular note is its ability to switch between positive and negative charges— essentially zeros and ones— at nanosecond speeds. This rapid switching ability is key for high-performance computing and data processing.
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