It is a well known fact that most of the electronics systems rely on silicon transistors that in order to regulate voltage switch on and off but due to speed and resistance constraints, waste energy as heat. To offer a solution to this problem, Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin out Cambridge Electronics Inc (CEI) has announced a line of GaN transistors and power electronic circuits that promise to cut energy usage in data centres, electric cars, and consumer devices by 10 to 20 percent worldwide by 2025. These GaN transistors have at least one-tenth the resistance of such silicon based transistors and hence have much greater energy efficiency.

All these benefits were a great thing to start with but due to safety drawbacks and expensive manufacturing methods the GaN transistors could not make it to the market. The researchers have now managed to address these issues. Power transistors are designed to flow high currents when on, and to block high voltages when off but GaN transistors always allows a flow of current by default. By modifying the structure, the researchers developed GaN transistors that were ‘normally off’. To drop manufacturing costs, the researchers developed new fabrication technologies which involved switching out gold metals used in manufacturing GaN devices for metals that were compatible with silicon fabrication, and developing ways to deposit GaN on large wafers used by silicon foundries. CEI co-founder Tomas Palacios, an MIT associate professor who co-invented the technology said: “We always talk about GaN as gallium and nitrogen, but you can modify the basic GaN material, add impurities and other elements, to change its properties.”

These new and improved GaN transistors are being used by the CEI in various applications, for ex. developing laptop adaptors that are approximately 1.5 cubic inches in volume and that is the smallest adaptor ever made. Other application of this transistor is in imparting better power electronics for data centres run by Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other companies (which currently utilise 2 percent of electricity in the US), to power the cloud. Also, these transistors may replace the silicon-based power electronic in electric cars which is hoped to boost the energy efficiency of these cars by making them lighter, cheaper and capable of driving long distances.

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Author:Technology Blog