A group of engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison created, according to them, "the most functional and fastest thin-film transistor in the world." In addition to possessing high electrical parameters, such transistors can be produced by means of fast, simple and inexpensive methods of production, which can easily be expanded to the scale of mass industrial production. This achievement will allow developers in the near future to create new advanced portable and mobile devices that have high intellectual abilities and are able to maintain their performance in compression, stretching and other types of deformation.
The new thin-film transistor is manufactured using BiCMOS technology (bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor). These transistors have high speed, are able to pass through a sufficiently large current, operate at a relatively high voltage and have a small transient resistance, which allows to reduce the amount of energy wasted in the form of heat released. In this case, the entire structure of the transistor is applied to the surface of the silicon nanomembrane substrate during a one-stage high-temperature processing process.
BiCMOS-transistors are the preferred type of transistors for "mixed signal" processing devices combining processing of both analog and digital signals. Such devices include the majority of portable devices used by us in everyday life, mobile phones, for example. "And now, with the advent of new transistors, such devices can become flexible," says Zhenqiang Ma, professor of electronics and electrical engineering.
With the use of traditional technologies, the production of thin-film BiCMOS transistors is a long process, in which several stages of high-temperature processing are used. And even a slight deviation of the temperature of one stage can destroy the elements of the structure of the future transistor, manufactured with the help of previous stages.
"In manufacturing, the manufacturing process of BiCMOS transistors lasts about three months," says Ma Zhenkiang, "Our process, by eliminating a number of intermediate stages, allows us to meet within one week, and all this together will allow us to arrange the release of devices with such transistors already in the very near future. "