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Express Tribune
12-05-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Chinese researchers develop silicon-free transistor technology faster outpacing Intel, TSMC, and Samsung
Chinese researchers at Peking University have unveiled a potentially game-changing silicon-free transistor, claiming it could outperform the latest chips from Intel, TSMC, and Samsung. The innovation, based on a two-dimensional material known as bismuth oxyselenide, marks a major shift in chip architecture. The transistor employs a gate-all-around (GAAFET) design, with the gate fully enveloping the source—unlike traditional FinFET technology, which provides only partial gate coverage. This full-contact structure significantly reduces energy leakage and allows greater control over current flow, resulting in improved performance. According to the research team, the new transistor operates up to 40% faster than Intel's latest 3nm chips and consumes 10% less power. Tests were conducted under the same conditions used for commercial-grade processors. The findings, published in Nature Materials, suggest the transistor may represent the most efficient and powerful to date. Lead scientist Professor Peng Hailin described the innovation as 'changing lanes' rather than simply improving existing materials. The new design avoids the vertical stack typical of FinFETs and instead resembles an interwoven bridge-like structure, helping overcome miniaturisation challenges as chip sizes approach sub-3nm levels. Two novel bismuth-based compounds power the breakthrough: Bi₂O₂Se as the semiconductor and Bi₂SeO₅ as the gate dielectric. Both materials feature low interface energy, reducing electron scattering and enabling near-resistance-free electron flow. 'This allows electrons to flow with almost no resistance, like water through a smooth pipe,' Peng explained. Importantly, the researchers say their transistor can be fabricated using existing semiconductor infrastructure, potentially easing the path to large-scale production. They have already used the design to create small logic units. If commercialised, the development could significantly disrupt the global chip market and accelerate the shift away from silicon-based technology.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Chinese university designed 'world's first silicon-free 2D GAAFET transistor,' claims new bismuth-based tech is both the fastest and lowest-power transistor yet
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A research team from Peking University has published its findings on a two-dimensional, low-power GAAFET transistor, the first of its kind in the world. Led by Professor Peng Hailin and Qiu Chenguang, the multi-disciplinary team published in Nature, with some team members calling the discovery nothing short of a monumental breakthrough. The Peking team has fabricated what the paper describes as a "wafer-scale multi-layer-stacked single-crystalline 2D GAA configuration." "It is the fastest, most efficient transistor ever," said Peng of his team's breakthrough. 'If chip innovations based on existing materials are considered a 'short cut,' then our development of 2D material-based transistors is akin to 'changing lanes,'' continues Peng in a statement for Peking University's website (accessed via South China Morning Post). The team claims to have tested their transistor against products from Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and elsewhere, where it outperformed them under matching operating conditions. To break down the technobabble, we must start with GAAFET. Gate-all-around field-effect transistors, GAAFET for short, are the next evolution of transistor technology after MOSFETs and FINFETs. Innovation in transistors has largely been driven by better control of sources and gates communication; MOSFETs have a source touched on one plane by a gate, FINFETs have three planes touch their gates, where gate-all-around surrounds sources in their intersecting gates, as the name would imply. Below is Samsung's illustrative diagram on the differences (plus Samsung's proprietary MBCFET version of GAAFET). GAAFET transistors are nothing new; the transistor technology is essential for fabricating microchips at 3nm and below. Peking's major innovation comes from the two-dimensional nature of their transistors, facilitated by using an element other than silicon. Bi₂O₂Se, or bismuth oxyselenide, is a semiconductor material studied for its use in sub-1nm process nodes for years, largely thanks to its ability to be a 2D semiconductor. Two-dimensional semiconductors, like 2D Bi₂O₂Se, are more flexible and sturdy at a small scale than silicon, which runs into reduced carrier mobility at even the 10nm node. Such breakthroughs into stacked 2D transistors and the move from silicon to bismuth are exciting for the future of semiconductors and are necessary for the Chinese industry to compete on the leading edge of semiconductors. Thanks to a U.S.-China trade war over chips and modern technology, China finds itself cut off from tools like EUV lithography that enable the production of processors on nodes that the rest of the tech world has been producing for nearly a decade. As a result, China has invested heavily in research that will allow it to leapfrog the current state of the tech industry, not content to catch up merely. While 2D GAAFET transistors may not be the future of semiconductor fabrication, the study represents burgeoning young minds in China prepared to innovate on what is possible to push the industry forward. As the United States stands ready to ramp up its trade embargoes and restrictions against China's tech access, including a potential ban on GAAFET technology, China's tech industry is racing against the clock of warring empires.
South China Morning Post
11-03-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
‘Changing lanes': China heralds fastest-ever chip technology
A team of researchers at Peking University claims to have shattered chip performance limits and proven that China can use new materials to 'change lanes' in the semiconductor race by circumventing silicon-based roadblocks entirely. Advertisement The researchers, led by physical chemistry professor Peng Hailin, said their self-engineered 2D transistor could operate 40 per cent faster than Intel and TSMC's cutting-edge 3-nanometre silicon chips , while consuming 10 per cent less energy. 'It is the fastest, most efficient transistor ever,' according to an official statement published last week on the PKU website. 'If chip innovations based on existing materials are considered a 'short cut', then our development of 2D material-based transistors is akin to 'changing lanes',' Peng said in the statement. 'While this path is born out of necessity due to current sanctions, it also forces researchers to find solutions from fresh perspectives,' he added. Advertisement According to Peng and his team, their bismuth-based transistor outperformed the most advanced comparable devices from Intel, TSMC, Samsung and the Belgian Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, when placed under the same operating conditions.
