Walter Weber has made an international name for himself with his work on novel, reconfigurable electronics. WeberвЂ™s research group has only been working at TU Wien for about two years. In this way, the speed and energy efficiency of the circuits can also be significantly increased.вЂќ вЂњArithmetic operations, which previously required 160 transistors, are possible with 24 transistors due to this increased adaptability. In the future, this intelligence can be transferred to the adaptability of the new transistor itself,вЂќ says Prof. вЂњUntil now, the intelligence of electronics has come simply from the interconnection of several transistors, each of which had only a fairly primitive functionality. In this way, for example, a NAND gate (a logic not-and gate) can be switched to a NOR gate (a logic neither-nor gate). This results in new degrees of freedom that we can use to give the transistor exactly the properties that we need at the moment.вЂќ With the help of the control electrode, we can modulate at which voltage this threshold lies.

After a certain threshold, however, the current flow decreases again вЂ“ this is called negative differential resistance. вЂњThis is because germanium has a very special electronic structure: when you apply voltage, the current flow initially increases, as you would expect. вЂњThe fact that we use germanium is a decisive advantage,вЂќ says Masiar Sistani. This device architecture makes it possible to control electrons and holes separately. Walter Weber, Masiar Sistani and Raphael BГ¶ckle (left to right). Walter WeberвЂ™s team at the Institute for Solid State Electronics at TU Wien. Masiar Sistani, who is a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. It can dynamically program the function of the transistor,вЂќ explains Dr. What is decisive is that our transistor features a further control electrode, which is placed on the interfaces between germanium and metal. Above the germanium segment, we place a gate electrode like the ones found in conventional transistors. In the novel transistor at TU Wien, both electrons and holes are manipulated simultaneously in a very special way: вЂњWe connect two electrodes with an extremely thin wire made of germanium, via extremely clean high-quality interfaces. This is then referred to as вЂњholesвЂќ вЂ“ they can also be moved through the material. How the electric charge is transported in the transistor depends on the material used: Either there are free-moving electrons that carry a negative charge, or an electron may be missing from individual atoms, so that this spot is positively charged. This makes it possible to build simple logic circuits but also memory storage. The transistor is the basis of every modern electronic device: it is a tiny component that either allows current to flow or blocks the flow of current вЂ“ depending on whether or not an electrical voltage is applied to a control electrode. The special properties of germanium and the use of dedicated program gate electrodes made it possible to create a prototype for a new component that may usher in a new era of chip technology.ДЄn additional control electrode changes everything It has been presented in the journal ACS Nano. This was a success: The most flexible transistor in the world has now been produced using germanium.

In order to achieve this, scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) did not rely on the usual silicon technology, but on germanium. This fundamentally changes the possibilities of chip design and opens up completely new opportunities in the field of artificial intelligence, neural networks or even logic that works with more values than just 0 and 1. In the future, however, more flexibility will be possible: New types of adaptive transistors can be dynamically switched during run-time to perform different logical tasks. Normally, computer chips consist of electronic components that always do the same thing. Revolutionary new electronic components can be adapted to perform very different tasks вЂ“ a technology perfectly suited for artificial intelligence. In addition to the usual control gate (red) there is also a program gate (blue).

Transistor