{"id":25214,"date":"2018-06-08T00:32:09","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T00:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=316975"},"modified":"2018-06-11T13:37:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T13:37:53","slug":"overcoming-transistor-miniaturization-limits-due-to-quantum-tunneling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2018\/06\/08\/overcoming-transistor-miniaturization-limits-due-to-quantum-tunneling\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming transistor miniaturization limits due to &lsquo;quantum tunneling&rsquo;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_316977\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 286px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/overcoming-transistor-minaturization-limits-due-to-quantum-tunneling\/single-molecule-insulator-device\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-316977\"><img class=\" wp-image-316977\" title=\"single-molecule insulator device\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/images\/single-molecule-insulator-device.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"377\" \/><\/a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of a single-molecule device that blocks leakage current in a transistor (yellow: gold transistor electrodes) (credit: Haixing Li\/Columbia Engineering)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A team of researchers at <a href=\"http:\/\/engineering.columbia.edu\/\">Columbia Engineering<\/a> and associates* have synthesized a molecule that could overcome a major physical limit to miniaturizing computer <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Transistor\">transistors<\/a> at the nanometer scale (under about 3 nanometers) &#8212; caused by \u201cleakage current.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leakage current between two metal transistor electrodes results when the gap between the electrodes narrows to the point that electrons are no longer contained by their barriers &#8212; a phenomenon known as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Quantum_tunnelling\">quantum tunneling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers synthesized the first molecule** capable of insulating (preventing electron flow) at the nanometer scale more effectively than a vacuum barrier (the traditional approach). The molecule bridges the nanometer gap between two metal electrodes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_316976\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 402px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/overcoming-transistor-minaturization-limits-due-to-quantum-tunneling\/interference\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-316976\"><img class=\" wp-image-316976\" title=\"interference\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/images\/interference.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"392\" height=\"125\" \/><\/a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class=\"wp-caption-text\">Constructive interference (left) between two waves increases the resulting wave; destructive interference (right) decreases the resulting wave. (credit: Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The silicon-based molecule design uses \u201cdestructive quantum interference,\u201d which occurs when the peaks and valleys of two waves are placed exactly out of phase, annulling oscillation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve reached the point where it\u2019s critical for researchers to develop creative solutions for redesigning insulators. Our molecular strategy represents a new design principle for classic devices, with the potential to support continued miniaturization in the near term,\u201d said Columbia Engineering physicist Latha Venkataraman, Ph.D.<\/p>\n<p>The research bucks the trend of most research in transistor miniaturization, which aims to create highly conducting contact electrodes, typically using carbon nanotubes (see \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/method-to-replace-silicon-with-carbon-nanotubes-developed-by-ibm-research\" >Method to replace silicon with carbon nanotubes developed by IBM Research<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n<p><em>* Other <\/em><em>researchers on the team were from <a href=\"https:\/\/chem.columbia.edu\/\">Columbia University Department of Chemistry<\/a>, Shanghai Normal University, and the University of Copenhagen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>** The molecule is bicyclo[2.2.2]octasilane.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers at Columbia Engineering and associates* have synthesized a molecule that could overcome a major physical limit to miniaturizing computer transistors at the nanometer scale (under about 3 nanometers) &mdash; caused by &ldquo;leakage current.&rdquo; Leakage current between two metal transistor electrodes results when the gap between the electrodes narrows to the point [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":454,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronicscomputer","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25215,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25214\/revisions\/25215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}