Japanese scientists from the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS) and the University of Tokyo have developed a new type of organic transistor. It would not be surprising if this transistor, due to its construction and the presence of two control electrodes, cannot independently perform the functions of the basic logic elements AND, OR, NAND, NOR or XOR, which often include several conventional transistors.

In the future, transistors of a similar structure can be used to create reconfigurable logic circuits, which will open up a whole new set of opportunities in the design of high-performance miniature and mobile devices.

The double-gate organic antiambipolar transistor (DG-OAAT), whose structure is shown in one of the illustrations shown here, has a very unusual conduction property. When the voltage at its gate exceeds a certain threshold, the current through the transistor decreases. By varying the upper and lower signal voltages at the control electrodes, you can make the transistor act as one of the basic logic elements, with two inputs and one output.

For reference, to implement the simplest logic element NAND using existing integrated circuit technologies, it is necessary to implement four conventional transistors and the most complex logic element XOR – 12 transistors.

The developers of the new type of transistor see its future in the possibility of significantly increasing the integration density of circuits based on organic elements, which until recently was the main problem in this area. In the future, Japanese scientists will develop electrically reconfigurable integrated circuits, the basic unit of which will be a new type of transistor. Source