In this post, I will explain, why transistors won't get smaller in some time, or will they?
Moore's law predicts, that every 2 years transistors on a certain dye size will double. This means, that transistors will have to halve their size in two years. So, why can't this go on forever? Quantum mechanics, to be more precise, quantum tunnelling. As the transistors get smaller and smaller, the distance between collector and emitter
will shorten. That wouldn't be a problem if transistors were much bigger than they are now.
very simple representation of a transistor
What exactly is quantum tunnelling then? That's pretty easily explained. When the transistors get smaller and smaller, quantum mechanics come into play and the electrons, more or less, ignore the gate.
They just tunnel through it. This is because quantum mechanics are a game of probability. It's likely that the electrons will just be stopped by the gate, but it's unlikely but also possible that they just go through the base.
But there are also transistors, which make use of this effect. They are called tunnelling field-effect transistors, or for short TFETs. These transistors use the tunnelling effect to achieve a much lower voltage required for switching the transistor on.
So Moore's Law could be saved by this new technology.
I hope you liked this shirt dive into transistors and Moore's Law. I also hope that this encourages you to read more on the subject because I think it's very interesting, but I don't want to bore you with a wall of text.
