This photograph shows a 50th anniversary (1997) replica of the first transistor invented at Bell Labs on 1947 December 23. Now, lasers could greatly improve the speed and further reduce the size of transistors. (Image Sources: Wikipedia.org, By Federal employee - https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/Initiatives/Millennium/capsule/mayo.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=554340)
By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower
The transistor, the workhorse of the
electronics and space ages, may be ready for a technological upgrade,
which could greatly improve computers and portable telephones.
According to Purdue University Assistant Professor Tillmann Kubis,
the combination of quantum cascade laser and transistor technologies
could help manufacturers make even faster, more efficient, and
smaller transistors.
One of the greatest inventions of the
20th century, the transistor is a key active component in
nearly all modern electronics. Without the much reduced size and
weight of transistors, it would have been much more difficult
(perhaps not even possible) to, literally, launch payloads, including
humans, into Outer Space.
Circuits in a wide variety of
electronic and digital devices use transistors as electronic
switches: “on” or “off” state – a binary computer system's
“ones” and “zeros” determined by the flow of electrical
current or the lack of flow of electrical current (actually, a lesser
electrical current due to a lower voltage). The quantum cascade laser
technology will be able to offer better switching behavior for
computers and other digital devices, compared to traditional
transistors.
Smaller transistors, that operate at
lower power and lower temperatures, are the major advantages of the
new technology. The new technology becomes more sensitive to a
switching operation. Quantum cascade lasers can reduce the system
noise, from the heating-up by electronics, to more easily detect the
difference between the “ones” and “zeros” of such switches.
The quantum cascade laser allows
electrons to cascade to eventually become photons. The photons become
the laser switch, which then operates at the same time as a
conventional transistor switch, to better complete the operation.
“Our technology is unique because it
merges lasers and transistors,” said Tillmann Kubis, research
assistant professor in Purdue's School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Network for Computational Nanotechnology, and the Purdue
Center for Predictive Materials and Devices. Professor Kubis added,
“There is traditionally not a lot of overlap between these two
areas, even though the combination can be powerful with the
Internet-of-Things and other related fields.”
Professor Kubis says that the discovery
of the usefulness of the combination of quantum cascade laser
technology with conventional transistor technology occurred by
accident at the beginning of the year. He said this accidental
discovery happened during his lab's work and modeling of transistors
in-general.
The Purdue University researchers also
consider this type of new transistor as a promising candidate for
next-generation nano-devices. Professor Kubis says that this
discovery is an advance for other nano-transistor technologies being
developed.
Internet Links to Additional Information ---
Laser: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser
Quantum Cascade Laser: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cascade_laser
Transistor: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor
Purdue University News Release - "Transistor technology may improve speed, battery life for computers, mobile phones and other electronics."
Link >>> https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2018/Q3/transistor-technology-may-improve-speed,-battery-life-for-computers,-mobile-phones-and-other-electronics.html
Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
Tuesday, 2018 November 13.
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gaw
Glenn A. Walsh --- < http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Project Director, Friends of the Zeiss: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991.
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetarium.
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
< http://adlerplanetarium.
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
< http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
< http://www.andrewcarnegie.
