CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. engineers say they've created technologies designed to hurl the world into the next stage of the microelectronics revolution.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Jesus del Alamo says it's estimated within 15 years the limits of silicon-based transistors' size and performance will be reached.
"Unless we do something very radical pretty soon, the microelectronics revolution that has enriched our lives in so many different ways might come to a screeching halt," del Alamo said.
As a result, scientists are working on new materials and technologies that can go beyond the limits of silicon.
One such material del Alamo and his students are investigating is indium gallium arsenide, or InGaAs -- a material in which electrons travel many times faster than in silicon. As a result, it should be possible to make very small transistors that can switch and process information very quickly.
Del Alamo's group recently fabricated InGaAs transistors that can carry 2.5 times more current than state-of-the-art silicon devices.
The research is being presented in San Francisco this week by one of del Alamo's postdoctoral associates, Dae Kyun Kim, during the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting.
