New material can withstand ‘billions’ of electrical cycles without wearing out and scientists say it could revolutionise electronics within 10 to 20 years. Researchers have developed a new type of transistor that they say could ‘change the world of electronics’ in the next two decades.

The new transistor is built using an ultrathin material created from parallel layers of boron nitride; the researchers say it can switch between positive and negative charges in nanoseconds and can withstand more than 100 billion cycles without wearing out.

This makes it ideal not only for high-speed, energy-efficient electronics, but also for denser memory storage. Because boron nitride is so thin, and because of the voltage required to change polarization scales relative to its thickness, transistors made from this material would require extremely low power.

The material’s properties “already meet or exceed industry standards” when compared to existing transistor materials, the researchers said in a statement. They published their findings in the journal Science on June 6.

“In my lab, we deal primarily with fundamental physics. This is one of the first and perhaps most dramatic examples of how fundamental science can lead to something that can have a big impact on applications,” study co-author Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, a professor of physics at MIT, said in a statement.

Boron nitride can switch positive and negative charges in billionths of a second due to its ferroelectric properties. This is a term used to describe materials that have spontaneous electrical polarization (separation of positive and negative charges) that can be reversed by applying an electric field. In the new material, this polarization occurs due to a unique shifting of the material layers that occurs when an electric current is applied to the material. As the boron nitride layers slide past each other, the positions of the boron and nitrogen atoms change, causing the charges to change.

The researchers likened the process to “clasping your hands together and then gently moving them over each other.” This changes the electronic properties of the material without wearing it out, unlike flash memory made from traditional materials.

“Every time you write and delete flash memory, you get some degradation. It wears out over time, which means you have to use some very complex distribution techniques where you read and write to the chip,” Raymond said.

Ashori added: “When I think about my entire career in physics, I think this work could change the world 10 to 20 years from now.”

Despite all their promise, the researchers acknowledged that they have encountered challenges in bringing the new ferroelectrics into production, noting that they are “difficult and not amenable to mass production.” The researchers are currently working with other industry groups to address this issue.

“If people could grow these materials on a wafer scale, we could create so much more,” said study co-author Kenji Yasuda, an associate professor of applied and engineering physics at Cornell University. “There are a lot of problems. But if you solve them, this material could fit into many aspects of potential electronics of the future. That’s very exciting,” Ashuori added.