Intel Turbo-Charges Transistors with New Materials
 

Intel Corp. this week said that it had reached a milestone in its quest to make transistors switch ever faster while using less energy, by integrating a high-k gate with a compound semiconductor transistor. Details were presented this week at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

Intel has been researching the possibility of replacing the silicon channel of the transistor by a compound semiconductor material such as indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs). Up until recently, such transistors used a Schottky gate with no gate dielectric, and were subjected to large gate leakage. Intel has now identified and integrated a high-k gate dielectric to reduce leakage with these so-called QWFETs (quantum well field effect transistors).

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