Weixiao Huang from Rensslaer Polytechnic College which developed this Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistor which they claim has a far greater efficiency than the currently used Silicon transistors.
He claims that this transistor will be able to support the sophisticated power systems that are currently being developed across the world.
Gallium has long been known to be a better semiconductor material than Silicon which undoubtedly and single-handedly has revolutionized our world.Gallium nitride (GaN) features strong resistance to voltage breakdown, compared to conventional semiconductor materials such as silicon (Si) or gallium arsenide (GaAs).However this is a significant step towards faster and more environment friendly processing power.
The transistor demonstrates a new process called GaN MOS (Metal/Oxide/GaN) which is much more efficient than the MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) used today in most appliances from Computers to Mp3 players.The GaN MOS process has supposedly already shown world-record "Switch timings".
"This will significantly simplify entire electronic systems"Said Huang
Huang has also developed several other MOS-gated FETs which show superior performance in comparison to Silicon in terms of lower power comsumption, and higher power density.
Last Year,at the 2007 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS) ,Fujitsu Laboratories announced the development of a new technology for high power gallium nitride (GaN) high electron-mobility transistors (HEMT), paving the way for commercialization of high power GaN HEMTs.
If these New GaN transistors replace Silicon MOSFETs there would be a global reduction in fossil fuel consumption and pollution. -Weixiao Huang
