Transistors consist of three terminals: a source, a drain, and a gate. Current flows from the source to the drain, and that flow is controlled by the gate, which switches on and off in response to the voltage applied.
“The semiconductor industry has long assumed that any gate below 5 nm wouldn’t work, so anything below that was not even considered,” said Sujay Desai, the lead author on the study and a graduate student in Prof. Javey’s lab.
“We made the smallest transistor reported to date,” Prof. Javey said.
“The gate length is considered a defining dimension of the transistor. We demonstrated a 1-nm-gate transistor, showing that with the choice of proper materials, there is a lot more room to shrink our electronics,” he added.
“Our research shows that sub-5-nm gates should not be discounted. Industry has been squeezing every last bit of capability out of silicon,” Desai said.
“By changing the material from silicon to molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), we can make a transistor with a gate that is just 1 nm in length, and operate it like a switch.”
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