Transistor

Electronics

Ultra-high voltage transistors aim to boost EV range and efficiency

A University at Buffalo team has proposed a new form of power MOSFET transistor that can handle incredibly high voltages with minimal thickness, heralding an efficiency increase in the power electronics of electric vehicles.

A high-performance, biocompatible, flexible transistor developed at Columbia University could serve as the building block for a new generation of medical sensors, implants, and brain-machine interfaces

Health & Wellbeing

Flexible, high-performance transistors pave the way for mini medical sensors and implants

Scientists at Columbia University have developed flexible, functional, waterproof transistors. These could find use in building miniaturized medical sensors, brain-machine interfaces, or long-term implants.

Engineers at MIT and the University of Colorado have developed a new fabrication technique to make transistors measuring as tiny as 2.5 nm wide

Electronics

Smallest 3D transistors ever made measure a minuscule 2.5 nanometers

Engineers from MIT and the University of Colorado have developed a new microfabrication technique and used it to produce the smallest 3D transistors ever made, measuring about a third the size of the current leading commercial products.

Wafers of the new 5 nm chips are tested in pods in a New York facility

Computers

IBM's new 5nm architecture crams 30 billion transistors onto fingernail-sized chip

IBM has unveiled its plans to create 5 nm chips. The company is ditching the standard FinFET architecture in favor of a new structure built with a stack of four nanosheets, allowing some 30 billion transistors to be packed onto a chip the size of a fingernail.

Cosmic rays, thought to be ejected from supernovae, are an increasing issue for failures in consumer electronic devices

Electronics

Frozen phone? Cosmic rays could be to blame

Next time your smartphone freezes, the culprit might actually be the cosmic rays that are constantly raining down on us from outer space. A new study has examined how modern consumer electronics are becoming more vulnerable to cosmic interference, and suggests ways to build better chips.

Due to improved efficiency over the years, transistors now require much less silicon to make, and yet our global silicon consumption continues to increase

Environment

Can technology deliver sustainability?

A new study from MIT has examined modern technology through the lens of a 150-year-old economic theory of efficiency and resource consumption – and in almost all cases, the benefits of reducing required resources is cancelled out by the increase in consumer demand for them.

New stretchy transistors could lead to wearables that deform to fit and move with the body

Electronics

Flexible transistors could stretch the limits of wearable electronics

Engineers at Stanford have developed a new component to help stretch the potential of wearable electronics.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison claim to have created the first graphene-based transistor that exceeds the capabilities of the best silicon-based devices available today

Electronics

Carbon nanotube transistors outperform their silicon cousins for the first time

They're not the first transistors created using carbon nanotubes (CNTs), but researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) claim their new carbon nanotube transistors are the first to outperform the best silicon transistors available today.

A new graphene-based DNA mutation sensor can quickly and easily indicate the presence of a range of cancers and other life-threatening illnesses in real-time and low-cost

Medical

Low-cost graphene-based biosensor chip detects DNA mutations in real time

A new graphene-based sensor has been developed that can quickly and easily detect DNA mutations associated with a range of cancers and other life-threatening illnesses. It is envisaged that the sensor will eventually be implantable, and communicate data wirelessly to mobile devices in real-time.

Scientists at MIPT have developed a new type of power-efficient transistor using bilayered graphene

Electronics

Ultra-low power graphene-based transistor could enable 100 GHz clock speeds

Scientists have designed a graphene-based transistor that works with ultra-low power consumption and which could ultimately be used to increase the clock speed of processors up to a staggering 100 GHz.

The project team sees the technology as a viable alternative to optical fiber for broadband

Telecommunications

New record for wireless data transmission set at 6 Gbps

A project in Germany has set a new world record for wireless data transmission, sending 6 Gigabits per second, or the equivalent of the entire contents of a conventional DVD in under 10 seconds.

The biosensor is able to detect molecules linked to various cancers and neurological diseases for rapid diagnosis

Medical

Sensor detects signs of cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's

Scientists at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (LNNano) in Brazil have created a biosensor capable of rapidly detecting molecules specifically linked to various cancers and neurological diseases.