Transistors are crucial components of most electronics on the market today, including computers, smartphones, wearables and numerous other devices. These components, generally based on semiconducting materials, are designed to switch, detect and amplify current inside devices, controlling the flow of electricity inside them during their operation.
As conventional transistors are reaching their highest possible performance, electronics engineers have been working on alternative transistor designs that could be promising for future applications. Using different materials and arranging these materials in unique ways, engineers hope to enhance the performance of transistors, reduce their size or enable unique functions.
Reconfigurable field-effect transistors (FETs) are an emerging class of transistors that could help to reduce the complexity of electronics, by combining different functions in a single device. Specifically, these programmable transistors could combine the characteristics of unipolar n- and p-type semiconductors.
Researchers at National Tsing Hua University, National Chung Hsing University and other institutes in China recently a new reconfigurable device based on a 2D heterostrucure that can serve as a transistor and memory. This transistor, published in Nature Electronics, can be modulated via a photo-induced trapping mechanism.
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