A newly developed transistor device has demonstrated extraordinary levels of stability in tests, and in fact, it has performed so well that it promises to revolutionize the electronics and devices we use every day. These tiny switches are essential to almost every modern electronic device that involves data storage and processing information in a binary “on” or “off” state, switching back and forth many times per second.

Boasting an impressive combination of speed, size, and durability, this latest design is a potentially major upgrade for consumer devices like phones and laptops, as well as the data centers that store all our information in the cloud. According to the international team of researchers behind the new study, if the technology can be scaled to practical levels, our machines and systems could become significantly faster, more efficient, and also more reliable.

“In my lab, we’re essentially doing fundamental physics,” says Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “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.”

The transistor is made of a recently invented ultra-thin ferroelectric material (with different levels of positive and negative charges).
boron nitride uses two layers of material that shift slightly when electricity is applied, changing the configuration of the boron and nitrogen atoms.

This design makes transistors incredibly fast and incredibly thin, two features that could make a big difference in making electronics more compact and efficient. Imagine being able to fit more memory and computing power into much smaller devices that use much less power.

At most, the small displacement of the layers also changes the properties of the material, so wear and tear is minimal. The transistor is capable of being turned on and off at least 100 billion times without any signs of wear, meaning it has a much longer lifespan than flash memory currently in use.

“Every time you write to flash memory and erase it, you get some degradation,” says MIT physicist Raymond Ashwari. “It wears out over time, which means you have to use some very sophisticated distribution techniques where you read from the chip and write to the chip.”

The researchers acknowledge that there’s still a long way to go before these transistors can be used in real devices. Building a single device in the lab is a good start, but modern electronics require billions and billions of transistors.

But the team is excited about where it could go next. It could also be useful in investigating other areas of physics, such as using light instead of electricity to cause a layer to slide. Clearly, our current reliance on technology and digital devices means that any innovation in this area could have far-reaching consequences and benefits that will affect the majority of people on the planet.

“When I think about my entire career in physics, I think this is a study that I think could change the world in 10 to 20 years,” Ashwari says. The study was published on: Science.