UIUC Creates World's Fastest Transistor Again

An anonymous reader writes "The University of Illinois has developed (again) the world's fastest transistor operating at over 500 GHz. They used an indium phosphide based wafer, and super-scaled dimensions. The device kind of looks like a spaceship." Milton Feng, the professor in charge of the team behind the transistor, admits that their ultimate goal is a terahertz transistor, which given their previous achievements, doesn't sound too lofty.

Cost break!

[Hegemony]

Sweet, now the 250 Ghz's will be totally affordable.

Slightly over optimistic

[tarquin_fim_bim]

"During the past year, high-speed transistor records have fallen like dominoes on the Illinois campus."

January: 382
May: 452
October: 509
I'm no statistics expert but extrapolating those results I estimate they'll top out at 690 in June 2005

They can have 1 terrahertz now

[Anonymous Coward]

All you do is put two together? thats 1 terrahertz.

Why aren't people logical?

But what about thermal efficiency?

[The One KEA]

Will we all need an Asetek VapoChill [hothardware.com] to keep chips using these things cool?

Re:Can you imagine...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called a microchip.

Improvement

[Carnildo]

From the article:
150 nm, 382 GHz
100 nm, 452 GHz
75 nm, 509 GHz

At their current rate of improvement, a 680GHz device will have a collector size of 0 nm. Just imagine what will happen once they manage negative sizes!

Wise words from the chief developer:

[spektr]

The University of Illinois has developed again the world's fastest transistor operating at over 500 GHz

If only they had documented the damn thing, they wouldn't have to develop it twice!

indium phosphide valley

[seriv]

which are built from silicon and germanium, the Illinois transistors are made from indium phosphide and indium gallium arsenide.
Maybe they should call Champaign Indium Phosphide Valley.
-Seriv
(it is stupid I know)

Well, Duh!

[Anonymous Coward]

."The steady rise in the speed of bipolar transistors has relied largely on the vertical scaling of the epitaxial layer structure to reduce the carrier transit time," said Milton Feng, the Holonyak Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Illinois, whose team has been working on high-speed compound semiconductor transistors since 1995. "However, this comes at the cost of increasing the base-collector capacitance. To compensate for this unwanted effect, we have employed lateral scaling of both the emitter and the collector."

I mean, that's just blindingly obvious.

Already exists!

[Anonymous Coward]

By all the compound words in there, I'm pretty sure this has been nicked from star trek!

Used for Product Espionage (Oblig Simpsons)

[The_Rippa]

Earlier today, the blazing speed of the transistor was put to the test to pull apart the makeup of the sought-after "Flaming Homer"

Prof. Frink of the University of Illinois had this to say...

"Brace yourselves gentlemen. According to the new transistor, the secret ingredient is...Love!? Who's been screwing with this thing?"

Re:Wise words from the chief developer:

[i.r.id10t]

Yeah, but no one ever reads the documentation...

Re:Improvement

[spektr]

Just imagine what will happen once they manage negative sizes!

I imagine: 800i GHz in the first generation and even more imaginary in the following years!

Looks like a spaceship?

[Gallifrey]

Obviously the submitter is a Dr. Who fan.

Misconceptions about DARPA

[roesti]

I wonder how many people they can kill using this chip?

DARPA is a research arm staffed heavily by scientists, so it's perhaps a little more noble than its DoD links might suggest. The Internet is an obvious example: DARPA invented the Internet to distract computer nerds from procreation, to the benefit of future generations.

Re:Obligatory..

[ThogScully]

Tough to port Linux to a single transistor, but I'll give $5 to anyone who can.
-N

Crapsticks...

[Kyn]

Oh shit. I have a test on transistors (ECE 340, Solid State Device Electronics) tonight and attend UIUC...they better fucking not test us on this... :(

Re:Faster video games???

[Tumbleweed]

> I thought they may be pissing away their money on something
> stupid and useless like bettering humanity.

You'll never better humanity by spending money on technology.

Party

[pagercam2]

I hope the nerds at UIUC have some better line than:

"Hey babe, my transistor swicthes at 509GHz thats GHz not MHz"

Chicks just don't appreciate fast transistors anymore.

Re:RF is Obsolete?

[Bingo Foo]

So what's the vote: will RF designers be obsolete, or will digital designers have to become RF designers?

Ah, grasshopper: when you understand that the answer is "both" and "neither," then you will be on the path to entanglement.

Better watch out for those bipolar transistors...

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone knows manic-depressive electronics (think Marvin from HHGTTG) are inherently unstable.

Re:Wise words from the chief developer:

[Woy]

- The University of Illinois has developed again the world's fastest transistor operating at over 500 GHz

If only they had documented the damn thing, they wouldn't have to develop it twice!

If they only posted it as an article linked on slashdot, it won't be read this time either.