Beyond Silicon: New Transistor Breakthrough
- A team from The University of Tokyo's institute of Industrial Science has developed new transistors using gallium-doped indium oxide (InGaOx),possibly overcoming limitations in scaling down silicon-based transistors.
- The team's research, slated for presentation at the 2025 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits, focuses on using a crystalline oxide structure to enhance electron mobility.
- Anlan Chen, the study's lead author, explained the importance of the transistor's structure.The "gate-all-around" design, where the gate surrounds the current channel, enhances both efficiency and scalability compared...
Gallium-Doped Transistors Boost Electronics Performance
Updated June 10,2025
A team from The University of Tokyo’s institute of Industrial Science has developed new transistors using gallium-doped indium oxide (InGaOx),possibly overcoming limitations in scaling down silicon-based transistors. These new transistors could significantly improve the performance of modern electronics.
The team’s research, slated for presentation at the 2025 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits, focuses on using a crystalline oxide structure to enhance electron mobility. This approach replaces silicon with InGaOx, offering a more orderly crystal lattice suitable for efficient electron flow.
Anlan Chen, the study’s lead author, explained the importance of the transistor’s structure.The “gate-all-around” design, where the gate surrounds the current channel, enhances both efficiency and scalability compared to conventional designs, Chen said.
The researchers doped the indium oxide with gallium to manage oxygen vacancies, which can hinder device stability. Masaharu Kobayashi, a senior author, noted that this doping process improves the transistor’s reliability by suppressing these defects.
Using atomic-layer deposition, the team coated the transistor’s channel region with a thin film of InGaOx, one layer at a time. The film was then heated to achieve the crystalline structure necessary for electron mobility, resulting in a high-performance MOSFET.
“Our gate-all-around MOSFET, containing a gallium-doped indium oxide layer, achieves high mobility of 44.5 cm2/Vs,” Dr. Chen said. “Crucially, the device demonstrates promising reliability by operating stably under applied stress for nearly three hours… our MOSFET outperformed similar devices that have previously been reported.”
This new transistor design emphasizes both material composition and structural arrangement, marking a step forward in creating reliable, high-density electronic components. These components are especially suited for computationally intensive applications like big data and artificial intelligence.
What’s next
The development of these gallium-doped transistors promises to advance next-generation technology,enabling smoother operation and meaningful improvements in everyday electronic devices.