Unlike traditional silicon-based transistors, which struggle with miniaturization and power efficiency at extremely small scales, this new design offers a solution without those constraints.
According to Peng, while US-led sanctions have restricted China’s access to the most advanced silicon-based transistors, the limitations have also driven Chinese researchers to explore alternative solutions.
“While this path is born out of necessity due to current sanctions, it also forces researchers to find solutions from fresh perspectives,” he added.
The study describes how the team developed a gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET) using bismuth-based materials. This design is a significant departure from the Fin Field-Effect Transistor (FinFET) structure, which has been the industry standard since Intel commercialized it in 2011.
The paper in Nature Materials.
Low-power 2D gate-all-around logics via epitaxial monolithic 3D integration | Nature Materials
I do not have a subscription to Nature. I did however listen to a Youtube video on this. It appears that creating a semi conductor out of bismuth is the secret. Bismuth is not a semi conductor but the scientists were able to dope it so that it becomes a semi conductor. While the first lab chips can be a little faster and a little smaller, the potential size can be down in the .5 nano meter. ( 5 angstroms- I think) As the material starts displaying elements of quantum properties at the really small sizes, they can use these properties to run at speeds many times faster than silicon.
Of course there are no manufacturing systems and no usable chips have ever been created. Still if it can be made economically it would be a big jump in computing.
Cheers
Qazulight