How Semiconductors Work by Marshall Brain

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Brain, Marshall. "How Semiconductors Work." 25 April 2001. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/diode.htm> 22 March 2009.Inside this Article Introduction to How Semiconductors Work Doping Silicon Diodes and Transistors Lots More Information See all Solid State Electronics articles Electronics Videos

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Diodes and Transistors A device that blocks current in one direction while letting current flow in another direction is called a diode. Diodes can be used in a number of ways. For example, a device that uses batteries often contains a diode that protects the device if you insert the batteries backward. The diode simply blocks any current from leaving the battery if it is reversed -- this protects the sensitive electronics in the device.

A semiconductor diode's behavior is not perfect, as shown in this graph:

When reverse-biased, an ideal diode would block all current. A real diode lets perhaps 10 microamps through -- not a lot, but still not perfect. And if you apply enough reverse voltage (V), the junction breaks down and lets current through. Usually, the breakdown voltage is a lot more voltage than the circuit will ever see, so it is irrelevant.

When forward-biased, there is a small amount of voltage necessary to get the diode going. In silicon, this voltage is about 0.7 volts. This voltage is needed to start the hole-electron combination process at the junction.

Another monumental technology that's related to the diode is the transistor. Transistors and diodes have a lot in common.

Transistors A transistor is created by using three layers rather than the two layers used in a diode. You can create either an NPN or a PNP sandwich. A transistor can act as a switch or an amplifier.

A transistor looks like two diodes back-to-back. You'd imagine that no current could flow through a transistor because back-to-back diodes would block current both ways. And this is true. However, when you apply a small current to the center layer of the sandwich, a much larger current can flow through the sandwich as a whole. This gives a transistor its switching behavior. A small current can turn a larger current on and off.

A silicon chip is a piece of silicon that can hold thousands of transistors. With transistors acting as switches, you can create Boolean gates, and with Boolean gates you can create microprocessor chips.

The natural progression from silicon to doped silicon to transistors to chips is what has made microprocessors and other electronic devices so inexpensive and ubiquitous in today's society. The fundamental principles are surprisingly simple. The miracle is the constant refinement of those principles to the point where,

today, tens of millions of transistors can be inexpensively formed onto a single chip. Transistor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Transistors) Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Transistor (disambiguation).

Assorted discrete transistors.In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to amplify or switch electronic signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current flowing through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be much larger than the controlling (input) power, the transistor provides amplification of a signal. The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is used in radio, telephone, computer and other electronic systems. Some transistors are packaged individually but most are found in integrated circuits.

Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Importance 3 Usage 4 How a transistor works 4.1 Transistor as a switch 4.2 Transistor as an amplifier 5 Comparison with vacuum tubes 5.1 Advantages 5.2 Limitations 6 Types 6.1 Bipolar junction transistor 6.2 Field-effect transistor

6.3 Other transistor types 7 Semiconductor material 8 Packaging 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links 12.1 Datasheets 12.2 Patents

[edit] History Main article: History of the transistor

A replica of the first working transistor.The first patent[1] for the field-effect transistor principle was filed in Canada by Austrian-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld on October 22, 1925, but Lilienfeld did not publish any research articles about his devices. In 1934 German physicist Dr. Oskar Heil patented another field-effect transistor.

On 17 November 1947 John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, at AT&T Bell Labs, observed that when electrical contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, the output power was larger than the input. William Shockley saw the potential in this and worked over the next few months greatly expanding the knowledge of semiconductors and is considered by many to be the "father" of the transistor. The term was coined by John R. Pierce.

[edit] Importance The transistor is considered by many to be the greatest invention of the twentiethcentury,[2] or as one of the greatest.[3] It is the key active component in practically all modern electronics. Its importance in today's society rests on its

ability to be mass produced using a highly automated process (fabrication) that achieves astonishingly low per-transistor costs.

Although several companies each produce over a billion individually-packaged (known as discrete) transistors every year,[4] the vast majority of transistors produced are in integrated circuits (often shortened to IC, microchips or simply chips) along with diodes, resistors, capacitors and other electronic components to produce complete electronic circuits. A logic gate consists of about twenty transistors whereas an advanced microprocessor, as of 2006, can use as many as 1.7 billion transistors (MOSFETs).[5] "About 60 million transistors were built this year [2002] ... for [each] man, woman, and child on Earth."[6]

The transistor's low cost, flexibility and reliability have made it a ubiquitous device. Transistorized mechatronic circuits have replaced electromechanical devices in controlling appliances and machinery. It is often easier and cheaper to use a standard microcontroller and write a computer program to carry out a control function than to design an equivalent mechanical control function.

[edit] Usage The bipolar junction transistor, or BJT, was the first transistor invented, and through the 1970s, was the most commonly used transistor. Even after MOSFETs became available, the BJT remained the transistor of choice for many analog circuits such as simple amplifiers because of their greater linearity and ease of manufacture. Desirable properties of MOSFETs, such as their utility in low-power devices, usually in the CMOS configuration, allowed them to capture nearly all market share for digital circuits; more recently MOSFETs have captured most analog and power applications as well, including modern clocked analog circuits, voltage regulators, amplifiers, power transmitters, motor drivers, etc.

BJT used as an electronic switch, in grounded-emitter configuration. [edit] How a transistor works

Amplifier circuit, standard common-emitter configuration. Simple circuit using a transistor.

Operation graph of a transistor.[dubious discuss]The essential usefulness of a transistor comes from its ability to use a small signal applied between one pair of its terminals to control a much larger signal at another pair of terminals. This property is called "gain". A transistor can control its output in proportion to the input signal; this is called an "amplifier". Or, the transistor can be used to turn current on or off in a circuit like an electrically controlled "switch", where the amount of current is determined by other circuit elements.

The two types of transistors have slight differences in how they are used in a circuit. A bipolar transistor has terminals labelled base, collector and emitter. A small current at base terminal can control or switch a much larger current between collector and emitter terminals. For a field-effect transistor, the terminals are labelled gate, source, and drain, and a voltage at the gate can control a current between source and drain.

The image to the right represents a typical bipolar transistor in a circuit. Charge will flow between emitter and collector terminals depending on the current in the base. Since internally the base and emitter connections behave like a semiconductor diode, a voltage drop develops between base and emitter while the base current exists. The size of this voltage depends on the material the transistor is made from, and is referred to as VBE.

[edit] Transistor as a switch Transistors are commonly used as electronic switches, for both high power applications including switched-mode power supplies and low power applications such as logic gates.

It can be seen from the graph that once the base voltage reaches a certain level, shown at B, the current will no longer increase with increasing VBE and the output will be held at a fixed voltage.[dubious discuss] The transistor is then said to be saturated. Hence, values of input voltage can be chosen such that the output is either completely off,[7] or completely on. The transistor is acting as a switch, and this type of operation is common in digital circuits where only "on" and "off" values are relevant.

[edit] Transistor as an amplifier

The above common emitter amplifier is designed so that a small change in voltage in (Vin) changes the small current through the base of the transistor and the transistor's current amplification combined with the properties of the circuit mean that small swings in Vin produce large changes in Vout.

It is important that the operating parameters of the transistor are chosen and the circuit designed such that as far as possible the transistor operates within a linear portion of the graph, such as that shown between A and B, otherwise the output signal will suffer distortion.

Various configurations of single transistor amplifier are possible, with some providing current gain, some voltage gain, and some both.

From mobile phones to televisions, vast numbers of products include amplifiers for sound reproduction, radio transmission, and signal processing. The first discrete transistor audio amplifiers barely supplied a few hundred milliwatts, but power and audio fidelity gradually increased as better transistors became available and amplifier architecture evolved.

Modern transistor audio amplifiers of up to a few hundred watts are common and relatively inexpensive.

Some musical instrument amplifier manufacturers mix transistors and vacuum tubes in the same circuit, as some believe tubes have a distinctive sound.

[edit] Comparison with vacuum tubes Prior to the development of transistors, vacuum (electron) tubes (or in the UK "thermionic valves" or just "valves") were the main active components in electronic equipment.

[edit] Advantages The key advantages that have allowed transistors to replace their vacuum tube predecessors in most applications are:

Small size and minimal weight, allowing the development of miniaturized electronic devices. Highly automated manufacturing processes, resulting in low per-unit cost. Lower possible operating voltages, making transistors suitable for small, batterypowered applications. No warm-up period for cathode heaters required after power application. Lower power dissipation and generally greater energy efficiency. Higher reliability and greater physical ruggedness. Extremely long life. Some transistorized devices produced more than 30 years ago are still in service. Complementary devices available, facilitating the design of complementarysymmetry circuits, something not possible with vacuum tubes. Insensitivity to mechanical shock and vibration, thus avoiding the problem of microphonics in audio applications.

[edit] Limitations Silicon transistors do not operate at voltages higher than about 1,000 volts (SiC devices can be operated as high as 3,000 volts). In contrast, electron tubes have been developed that can be operated at tens of thousands of volts. High power, high frequency operation, such as used in over-the-air television broadcasting, is better achieved in electron tubes due to improved electron mobility in a vacuum. On average, a higher degree of amplification linearity can be achieved in electron tubes as compared to equivalent solid state devices, a characteristic that may be important in high fidelity audio reproduction. Silicon transistors are much more sensitive than electron tubes to an electromagnetic pulse, such as generated by a nuclear explosion.

[edit] Types PNP P-channel NPN N-channel BJT JFET

BJT and JFET symbols N-channel

P-channel

JFET MOSFET enh MOSFET dep

JFET and IGFET symbolsTransistors are categorized by:

Semiconductor material : germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide, silicon carbide, etc. Structure: BJT, JFET, IGFET (MOSFET), IGBT, "other types" Polarity: NPN, PNP (BJTs); N-channel, P-channel (FETs) Maximum power rating: low, medium, high Maximum operating frequency: low, medium, high, radio frequency (RF), microwave (The maximum effective frequency of a transistor is denoted by the term fT, an abbreviation for "frequency of transition". The frequency of transition is the frequency at which the transistor yields unity gain). Application: switch, general purpose, audio, high voltage, super-beta, matched pair Physical packaging: through hole metal, through hole plastic, surface mount, ball grid array, power modules Amplification factor hfe (transistor beta)[8] Thus, a particular transistor may be described as: silicon, surface mount, BJT, NPN, low power, high frequency switch.

[edit] Bipolar junction transistor Main article: Bipolar junction transistor The bipolar junction transistor (BJT) was the first type of transistor to be massproduced. Bipolar transistors are so named because they conduct by using both majority and minority carriers. The three terminals of the BJT are named emitter, base and collector. Two p-n junctions exist inside a BJT: the base/emitter junction and base/collector junction. "The [BJT] is useful in amplifiers because the currents at the emitter and collector are controllable by the relatively small base current."[9] In an NPN transistor operating in the active region, the emitter-base junction is forward biased, and electrons are injected into the base region.

Because the base is narrow, most of these electrons will diffuse into the reversebiased base-collector junction and be swept into the collector; perhaps onehundredth of the electrons will recombine in the base, which is the dominant mechanism in the base current. By controlling the number of electrons that can leave the base, the number of electrons entering the collector can be controlled. [9]

Unlike the FET, the BJT is a lowinput-impedance device. Also, as the baseemitter voltage (Vbe) is increased the baseemitter current and hence the collector emitter current (Ice) increase exponentially according to the Shockley diode model and the Ebers-Moll model. Because of this exponential relationship, the BJT has a higher transconductance than the FET.

Bipolar transistors can be made to conduct by exposure to light, since absorption of photons in the base region generates a photocurrent that acts as a base current; the collector current is approximately beta times the photocurrent. Devices designed for this purpose have a transparent window in the package and are called phototransistors.

[edit] Field-effect transistor Main article: MOSFET Main article: JFET The field-effect transistor (FET), sometimes called a unipolar transistor, uses either electrons (in N-channel FET) or holes (in P-channel FET) for conduction. The four terminals of the FET are named source, gate, drain, and body (substrate). On most FETs, the body is connected to the source inside the package, and this will be assumed for the following description.

In FETs, the drain-to-source current flows via a conducting channel that connects the source region to the drain region. The conductivity is varied by the electric field that is produced when a voltage is applied between the gate and source terminals; hence the current flowing between the drain and source is controlled by the voltage applied between the gate and source. As the gatesource voltage (Vgs) is increased, the drainsource current (Ids) increases exponentially for Vgs below threshold, and then at a roughly quadratic rate () (where VT is the threshold voltage at which drain current begins)[10] in the "space-charge-limited" region above threshold. A quadratic behavior is not observed in modern devices, for example, at the 65 nm technology node.[11]

For low noise at narrow bandwidth the higher input resistance of the FET is advantageous.

FETs are divided into two families: junction FET (JFET) and insulated gate FET (IGFET). The IGFET is more commonly known as metaloxidesemiconductor FET (MOSFET), from their original construction as a layer of metal (the gate), a layer of oxide (the insulation), and a layer of semiconductor. Unlike IGFETs, the JFET gate forms a PN diode with the channel which lies between the source and drain. Functionally, this makes the N-channel JFET the solid state equivalent of the vacuum tube triode which, similarly, forms a diode between its grid and cathode. Also, both devices operate in the depletion mode, they both have a high input impedance, and they both conduct current under the control of an input voltage.

Metalsemiconductor FETs (MESFETs) are JFETs in which the reverse biased PN junction is replaced by a metalsemiconductor Schottky-junction. These, and the HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors, or HFETs), in which a two-dimensional electron gas with very high carrier mobility is used for charge transport, are especially suitable for use at very high frequencies (microwave frequencies; several GHz).

Unlike bipolar transistors, FETs do not inherently amplify a photocurrent. Nevertheless, there are ways to use them, especially JFETs, as light-sensitive devices, by exploiting the photocurrents in channelgate or channelbody junctions.

FETs are further divided into depletion-mode and enhancement-mode types, depending on whether the channel is turned on or off with zero gate-to-source voltage. For enhancement mode, the channel is off at zero bias, and a gate potential can "enhance" the conduction. For depletion mode, the channel is on at zero bias, and a gate potential (of the opposite polarity) can "deplete" the channel, reducing conduction. For either mode, a more positive gate voltage corresponds to a higher current for N-channel devices and a lower current for P-channel devices. Nearly all JFETs are depletion-mode as the diode junctions would forward bias and conduct if they were enhancement mode devices; most IGFETs are enhancementmode types.

[edit] Other transistor types

Point-contact transistor, first type of transistor ever constructed Bipolar junction transistor (BJT) Heterojunction bipolar transistor - up to 100s GHz, common in modern ultrafast and RF circuits Grown-junction transistor, first type of BJT Alloy-junction transistor, improvement of grown-junction transistor Micro-alloy transistor (MAT), faster than alloy-junction transistor Micro-alloy diffused transistor (MADT), faster than MAT, type of a diffused-base transistor Post-alloy diffused transistor (PADT), faster than MAT, type of a diffused-base transistor Schottky transistor Surface barrier transistor Drift-field transistor Avalanche transistor Darlington transistors are two BJTs connected together to provide a high current gain equal to the product of the current gains of the two transistors. Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) use a medium power IGFET, similarly connected to a power BJT, to give a high input impedance. Power diodes are often connected between certain terminals depending on specific use. IGBTs are particularly suitable for heavy-duty industrial applications. The Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) 5SNA2400E170100 illustrates just how far power semiconductor technology has advanced. Intended for three-phase power supplies, this device houses three NPN IGBTs in a case measuring 38 by 140 by 190 mm and weighing 1.5 kg. Each IGBT is rated at 1,700 volts and can handle 2,400 amperes. Photo transistor React to light Field-effect transistor JFET, where the gate is insulated by a reverse-biased PN junction MESFET, similar to JFET with a Schottky junction instead of PN one High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT, HFET, MODFET) MOSFET, where the gate is insulated by a thin layer of insulator Inverted-T field effect transistor (ITFET) FinFET The source/drain region forms fins on the silicon surface.

FREDFET Fast-Reverse Epitaxial Diode Field-Effect Transistor Thin film transistor Used in LCD display. OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor, in which the semiconductor is an organic compound Ballistic transistor Floating-gate transistor Used for non-volatile storage. FETs used to sense environment Ion sensitive field effect transistor To measure ion concentrations in solution. EOSFET Electrolyte-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (Neurochip) DNAFET Deoxyribonucleic acid field-effect transistor Spacistor Diffusion transistor, formed by diffusing dopants into semiconductor substrate; can be both BJT and FET Unijunction transistors can be used as simple pulse generators. They comprise a main body of either P-type or N-type semiconductor with ohmic contacts at each end (terminals Base1 and Base2). A junction with the opposite semiconductor type is formed at a point along the length of the body for the third terminal (Emitter). Single-electron transistors (SET) consist of a gate island between two tunnelling junctions. The tunnelling current is controlled by a voltage applied to the gate through a capacitor. [1][2] Spin transistor Magnetically-sensitive Nanofluidic transistor Control the movement of ions through sub-microscopic, water-filled channels. Nanofluidic transistor, the basis of future chemical processors Multigate devices Tetrode transistor Pentode transistor Multigate device Trigate transistors (Prototype by Intel) Dual gate FETs have a single channel with two gates in cascode; a configuration that is optimized for high frequency amplifiers, mixers, and oscillators.

[edit] Semiconductor material The first BJTs were made from germanium (Ge). Silicon (Si) types currently predominate but certain advanced microwave and high performance versions now employ the compound semiconductor material gallium arsenide (GaAs) and the semiconductor alloy silicon germanium (SiGe). Single element semiconductor material (Ge and Si) is described as elemental.

Rough parameters for the most common semiconductor materials used to make transistors are given in the table below; it must be noted that these parameters will vary with increase in temperature, electric field, impurity level, strain and various other factors:

Semiconductor material characteristics Semiconductor material Junction forward voltage V @ 25 C Electron mobility m/(Vs) @ 25 C Hole mobility m/(Vs) @ 25 C Max. junction temp. C Ge 0.27 0.39 0.19 70 to 100 Si 0.71 0.14 0.05 150 to 200 GaAs 1.03 0.85 0.05 150 to 200 Al-Si junction 0.3 150 to 200

The junction forward voltage is the voltage applied to the emitter-base junction of a BJT in order to make the base conduct a specified current. The current increases exponentially as the junction forward voltage is increased. The values given in the table are typical for a current of 1 mA (the same values apply to semiconductor diodes). The lower the junction forward voltage the better, as this means that less power is required to "drive" the transistor. The junction forward voltage for a given current decreases with increase in temperature. For a typical silicon junction the change is approximately 2.1 mV/C.[12]

The density of mobile carriers in the channel of a MOSFET is a function of the electric field forming the channel and of various other phenomena such as the impurity level in the channel. Some impurities, called dopants, are introduced deliberately in making a MOSFET, to control the MOSFET electrical behavior.

The electron mobility and hole mobility columns show the average speed that electrons and holes diffuse through the semiconductor material with an electric field of 1 volt per meter applied across the material. In general, the higher the electron mobility the faster the transistor. The table indicates that Ge is a better material than Si in this respect. However, Ge has four major shortcomings compared to silicon and gallium arsenide:

its maximum temperature is limited it has relatively high leakage current it cannot withstand high voltages it is less suitable for fabricating integrated circuits Because the electron mobility is higher than the hole mobility for all semiconductor materials, a given bipolar NPN transistor tends to be faster than an equivalent PNP transistor type. GaAs has the highest electron mobility of the three semiconductors. It is for this reason that GaAs is used in high frequency applications. A relatively recent FET development, the high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), has a heterostructure (junction between different semiconductor materials) of aluminium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs)-gallium arsenide (GaAs) which has double the electron mobility of a GaAs-metal barrier junction. Because of their high speed and low noise, HEMTs are used in satellite receivers working at frequencies around 12 GHz.

Max. junction temperature values represent a cross section taken from various manufacturers' data sheets. This temperature should not be exceeded or the transistor may be damaged.

Al-Si junction refers to the high-speed (aluminum-silicon) semiconductor-metal barrier diode, commonly known as a Schottky diode. This is included in the table because some silicon power IGFETs have a parasitic reverse Schottky diode formed between the source and drain as part of the fabrication process. This diode can be a nuisance, but sometimes it is used in the circuit.

[edit] Packaging

Through-hole transistors (tape measure marked in centimetres)Transistors come in many different packages (chip carriers) (see images). The two main categories are through-hole (or leaded), and surface-mount, also known as surface mount device (SMD). The ball grid array (BGA) is the latest surface mount package (currently only for large transistor arrays). It has solder "balls" on the underside in place of leads. Because they are smaller and have shorter interconnections, SMDs have better high frequency characteristics but lower power rating.

Transistor packages are made of glass, metal, ceramic or plastic. The package often dictates the power rating and frequency characteristics. Power transistors have large packages that can be clamped to heat sinks for enhanced cooling. Additionally, most power transistors have the collector or drain physically connected to the metal can/metal plate. At the other extreme, some surfacemount microwave transistors are as small as grains of sand.

Often a given transistor type is available in different packages. Transistor packages are mainly standardized, but the assignment of a transistor's functions to the terminals is not: different transistor types can assign different functions to the package's terminals. Even for the same transistor type the terminal assignment can vary (normally indicated by a suffix letter to the part number- i.e. BC212L and BC212K).

[edit] See also Electronics portal Semiconductor devices Electronic component Semiconductor Band gap Diode Transconductance Transresistance Integrated circuit

Transistortransistor logic Very-large-scale integration Transistor count Moore's law Transistor models Semiconductor device modeling Digital logic Memristor

[edit] References ^ US patent 1745175 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld: "Method and apparatus for controlling electric current" first filed in Canada on 22.10.1925, describing a device similar to a MESFET ^ Dennis F. Herrick (2003). Media Management in the Age of Giants: Business Dynamics of Journalism. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0813816998. http://books.google.com/books? id=59rxoe1IkNEC&pg=PA383&ots=UC_NxASdwo&dq=transistor+greatestinvention&sig=Ul_-DYQxG7EhLsRvhE8QM821JEQ. ^ Robert W. Price (2004). Roadmap to Entrepreneurial Success. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. p. 42. ISBN 9780814471906. http://books.google.com/books? id=q7UzNoWdGAkC&pg=PA42&dq=transistor+inventions-of-the-twentiethcentury&lr=&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=MzJbScu0GobokATlm5Q1. ^ FETs/MOSFETs: Smaller apps push up surface-mount supply ^ Intel Multi-Core Processor Architecture Development retrieved 2008 December 19 ^ Embedded.com - The Two Percent Solution ^ apart from a small value due to leakage currents ^ "Transistor Example". http://www.bcae1.com/transres.htm. 071003 bcae1.com ^ a b Streetman, Ben (1992). Solid State Electronic Devices. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. pp. 301305. ISBN 0-13-822023-9. ^ Horowitz, Paul; Winfield Hill (1989). The Art of Electronics (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 115. ISBN 0-521-37095-7.

^ W. M. C. Sansen (2006). Analog design essentials. New York ; Berlin: Springer. p. 0152, p. 28. ISBN 0-387-25746-2. http://worldcat.org/isbn/0387257462. ^ A.S. Sedra and K.C. Smith (2004). Microelectronic circuits (Fifth Edition ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 397 and Figure 5.17. ISBN 0-19-514251-9. http://worldcat.org/isbn/0-19-514251-9.
How small can CPUs get? by Jonathan Strickland

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It seems like every year a journalist publishes an article that says transistors are as small as they'll ever get and Moore's Law is finished. Then engineers find innovative ways to create even smaller transistors and prove the journalist wrong. We've reached a point where many writers are gunshy when it comes to predicting the end of Moore's Law.

Intel's smallest microprocessor is the Atom, which measures 26 square millimeters and has 47 million transistors. Intel designed the Atom to work in mobile devices like smartphones [source: Intel]. But it's true that one day we'll hit the physical limits of how small traditional transistors can be. That's because once you hit the nanoscale, you're dealing with the bizarre world of quantum mechanics. In this world, matter and energy behave in ways that seem counterintuitive. Quantum physics is very different from classic physics -you can't even observe something on the quantum scale without affecting its behavior. One quantum effect is electron tunneling. Electron tunneling is a bit like teleportation. When material is very thin -- the thickness of a single nanometer (about 10 atoms thick) -- electrons can tunnel right through it as if it weren't there at all. The electron doesn't actually make a hole through the material. Instead, the electron disappears from one side of the barrier and reappears on the other. Since gates are meant to control the flow of electrons, this is a

problem. If electrons can pass through a gate under any set of circumstances, there's no way to control their flow. With leaky transistors, the flow of electrons can't be controlled, so the processor would be ineffective or not functional at all.

Intel/Newsmakers via Getty Images The Pentium 4 processor family. With companies like Intel working on transistors that measure only 32 nanometers in width, it won't be long before the oxide layer becomes too thin to act as a gate for electrons using traditional transistors. While engineers have hit some obstacles during the race to shrink transistors in the past, they've always found some way to work around the problem and keep up with Moore's Law. But those days could end once we face a fundamental law of physics. It's possible that engineers will discover a way to create an effective insulator even at a thickness of one nanometer. But even if they manage to do that, there's not much further they can go with transistors as we know them today. After all, beyond the nanoscale is the atomic scale, where you're dealing with materials that are only a few atoms in size. This doesn't mean that transistors will go away. But it might mean that the advancements in microprocessor development will slow down and level off. Improvements in processing power may not continue to be exponential. But companies will likely find ways to improve microprocessor efficiency and performance, nonetheless. There's also the possibility that microprocessor manufacturers will find an alternative to transistors. And some are already looking into ways to harness the quantum effects of the nanoscale -- effectively turning nano-lemons into nano-lemonade. It seems like microprocessor manufacturers will only be able to keep Moore's Law going for a few more years. But if you look back at the predictions from decades ago, you'll see journalists making that same claim. Maybe engineers see these predictions as a personal challenge to find ways around seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

How small can CPUs get? by Jonathan Strickland Print Email Cite Feedback Share Digg This Yahoo! Buzz StumbleUpon del.icio.us Reddit Cite This!Close Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks article:

Strickland, Jonathan. "How small can CPUs get?." 15 January 2009. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://computer.howstuffworks.com/small-cpu.htm> 22 March 2009.Inside this Article How small can CPUs get? Anatomy of a Transistor Transistors on the Nanoscale Lots More Information See all CPU articles Computer Videos More Computer Videos Anatomy of a Transistor

Court Mast/Intel via Getty Images Intel vice president Tom Kilroy holds a Dual-Core Xeon Processor 5100 at a press event in San Francisco.Before we go into the physical limitations of transistors, it helps to know what a transistor is made of and what it actually does. Basically, a transistor is a switch made out of a special kind of matter. One way you can classify matter is by looking at how well it can conduct electricity. That divides matter into three categories: conductors, insulators and semiconductors. A conductor is any type of material made of atoms with free spaces for electrons. An electric current can pass through conductive material -- metals tend to be good conductors. An insulator is matter composed of atoms that don't have any electron spaces available. As a result, electricity can't flow through these materials. Ceramic or glass are good examples of insulators.

Semiconductors are a bit different. They are composed of matter with atoms that have some space for electrons, but not enough to conduct electricity the way metals do. Silicon is such a material. Under some circumstances, silicon can act as a conductor. Under others, it acts as an insulator. By tweaking these circumstances, it's possible to control the flow of electrons. This simple concept is the foundation for the most advanced electronic devices in the world.

Engineers discovered that by doping -- introducing certain kinds of material -- into silicon, they could control its conductivity. They'd start with a base called a substrate and dope it with either negatively-charged or positivelycharged material. Negatively-charged material has an excess of electrons while positively charged material has an excess of holes -- places where electrons could fit. In our example, we'll consider an n-type transistor, which has a positively-charged substrate.

I'm Positive! While we use an n-type transistor in our example, it's possible to build p-type transistors. In that case, you'd dope the substrate with negatively-charged material and the terminals would carry a positive charge. On this foundation are three terminals: a source, a drain and a gate. The gate sits between the source and the drain. It acts as a door through which voltage can pass into the silicon, but not back out. The gate has a thin layer of insulator called an oxide layer that prevents electrons from passing back through the terminal. In our example, the insulator is between the gate and the positively-charged substrate.

The source and drain in our example are negatively-charged terminals. When you apply a positive voltage to the gate, it attracts the few free electrons in the positively-charged substrate to the gate's oxide layer. This creates an electron channel between the source and drain terminals. If you then apply a positive voltage to the drain, electrons will flow from the source through the electron channel to the drain. If you remove the voltage from the gate, the electrons in the substrate are no longer attracted to the gate and the channel is broken. That means

when you've got a charge to the gate, the transistor is switched to "on." When the voltage is gone, the transistor is "off."

Electronics interpret this switching as information in the form of bits and bytes. That's how your computer and other electronic devices process data. But because electronics depend on the movement of electrons to process information, they're subject to some special laws of physics. We'll take a closer look into them in the next section.

How Moore's Law Works by Jonathan Strickland

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Strickland, Jonathan. "How Moore's Law Works." 26 February 2009. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://computer.howstuffworks.com/moores-law.htm> 22 March 2009.Inside this Article Introduction to How Moore's Law Works Semiconductors, Transistors and Integrated Circuits Moore's Observation Interpretations of Moore's Law Moore's Law in Action Moore's Law and the Nanoscale See more The Future of Moore's Law Lessons Learned from Moore's Law Lots More Information See all CPU articles Computer Videos

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Semiconductors, Transistors and Integrated Circuits

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma A replica of the first transistorThe discovery of semiconductors, the invention of transistors and the creation of the integrated circuit are what make Moore's Law -and by extension modern electronics -- possible. Before the invention of the transistor, the most widely-used element in electronics was the vacuum tube. Electrical engineers used vacuum tubes to amplify electrical signals. But vacuum tubes had a tendency to break down and they generated a lot of heat, too.

Bell Laboratories began looking for an alternative to vacuum tubes to stabilize and strengthen the growing national telephone network in the 1930s. In 1945, the lab concentrated on finding a way to take advantage of semiconductors. A semiconductor is a material that can act as both a conductor and an insulator. Conductors are materials that permit the flow of electrons -- they conduct electricity. Insulators have an atomic structure that inhibits electron flow. Semiconductors can do both.

The control of the flow of electrons is what makes electronics work. Finding a way to harness the unique nature of semiconductors became a high priority for Bell Labs. In 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain built the first working transistor. The transistor is a device designed to control electron flows -- it has a gate that, when closed, prevents electrons from flowing through the transistor. This basic idea is the foundation for the way practically all electronics work.

Early transistors were huge compared to the transistors manufacturers produce today. The very first one was half an inch (1.3 centimeters) tall. But once engineers learned how to build a working transistor, the race was on to build them better and smaller. For the first few years, transistors existed only in scientific laboratories as engineers improved the design.

In 1958, Jack Kilby made the next huge contribution to the world of electronics: the integrated circuit. Earlier electric circuits consisted of a series of individual components. Electrical engineers would construct each piece and then attach them to a foundation called a substrate. Kilby experimented with building a circuit out of a single piece of semiconductor material and overlaying the metal parts necessary to connect the different pieces of circuitry on top of it. The result was an integrated circuit.

The next big development was the planar transistor. To make a planar transistor, components are etched directly onto a semiconductor substrate. This makes some parts of the substrate higher than others. Then you apply an evaporated metal film to the substrate. The film adheres to the raised portions of the semiconductor material, coating it in metal. The metal creates the connections between the different components that allow electrons to flow from one component to another. It's almost like printing a circuit directly onto a semiconductor wafer. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/small-cpu1.htm http://computer.howstuffworks.com/small-cpu2.htm http://www.howstuffworks.com/search.php?terms=transistors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistors http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/diode2.htm http://computer.howstuffworks.com/moores-law1.htm