peide d. ye, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at purdue, recently published a story on ieee spectrum hailing germanium, the material used in the very first transistors, as a potential replacement for silicon and alternative materials such as gallium arsenide in cutting edge transistors that are ready to take electronic devices to the next level.

germanium is making a comeback in transistor technology. (wikimedia commons)

“the world’s leading-edge chipmakers are contemplating a change to the component at the very heart of the transistor—the current-carrying channel,” ye wrote. “the idea is to replace the silicon there with a material that can move current at greater rates.”

ye was a researcher, who explored materials like gallium arsenide and once praised those type of materials as the future, has turned back to the beginning of transistor technology and rediscovered the benefits of germanium. this includes in nanowires, which may be the next step in transistor design beyond the current state-of-the-art, finfet.

“in a few years’ time, we may find that the material that brought us the transistor has helped usher it into a new age of remarkable performance,” ye said.

despite the many benefits of using silicon, ye explains that germanium offers mobile electrons and holes, electron voids in a material that are treated like positive charges, which are four times faster than silicon. this makes it a likely candidate for use in cmos circuits.

some of the deficiencies in germanium have been cured in recent years by engineering germanium with oxygen but not forming germanium oxide (geo₂). reserachers could turn germanium into stable, thin layers. this allowed ye and his team at purdue to begin making transistors with germanium channels and studying their properties.

while research continues on other advanced materials, ye believes that germanium is a step forward right now for electronics.

he wrote, “we may end up adopting several of these technologies in the coming years. but adding germanium to the channel—even initially mixed in with silicon—is a solution that will allow chipmakers to keep improving transistors in the near term. germanium, the primordial material of the solid-state age, could be a powerful elixir for its next decade.”

read the full article at http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/germanium-can-take-transistors-where-silicon-cant.