IEEE Spectrum December 29, 2020 The logic circuits behind just about every digital device today rely on a pairing of NMOS and PMOS. Researchers at Intel showed a different way: stacking the pairs so that one is atop the other. The scheme effectively cut the footprint of a simple CMOS circuit in half, meaning a potential doubling of transistor density on future ICs. The main part of the transistor consisting of a vertical fin of silicon as it does today, the nanosheet’s channel region consists of multiple, horizontal, nanometers-thin sheets stacked atop one another. They built an inverter using these […]
Tag Archives: Microprocessors
Physicists make electrical nanolasers even smaller
EurekAlert September 16, 2020 An international team of researchers (Russia, UK) has developed a new approach to create electrically driven nanolasers for integrated circuits. In their approach electrical pumping is based on a double heterostructure with a tunneling Schottky contact. Plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) replace photons. The pumping happens across the interface between the plasmonic metal and semiconductor, along which surface SPPs propagate. The pumping approach makes it possible to bring the electrically driven laser to the nanoscale, while retaining its ability to operate at room temperature and the radiation is effectively directed to a photonic or plasmonic waveguide, making the nanolaser […]