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nanotimes
10-02 :: February 2010
News in Brief
compounds that are free of indium, gallium or cad- Teodor K. Todorov, Kathleen B. Reuter, David B. Mitzi:
mium have not exceeded 6.7%, compared to IBM‘s High-Efficiency Solar Cell with Earth-Abundant Liquid-
new 9.6 efficiency rating. Processed Absorber (p NA), In: Advanced Materials AOP,
February 08, 2010, DOI:10.1002/adma.200904155:
Over the past several years, IBM researchers have

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.200904155
pioneered several breakthroughs related to creating
inexpensive, efficient solar cells. IBM does not plan
to manufacture solar technologies, but is open to
partnering with solar cell manufacturers to demons-
trate the technology.
First Junctionless Nanowire Transistor //
Tyndall Breakthrough to Revolutionize Microchip Manufacturing
A
team of scientists around Prof. Jean-Pierre Institute s ground breaking junctionless transistor
Colinge at the Tyndall National Institute have doesn t require a junction. “The current flows in
designed and fabricated a new type of transistor in a very thin silicon wire and the flow of current is
which there are no junctions and no doping con- perfectly controlled by a ‘wedding ring‘ structure that
centration gradients. These devices have full CMOS electrically squeezes the silicon wire in the same way
functionality. The world‘s first junctionless transistor that you might stop the flow of water in a hose by
could revolutionise microchip manufacturing in the squeezing it. These structures are easy to fabricate
semiconductor industry. even on a miniature scale which leads to the major
breakthrough in potential cost reduction. The Tyndall
“We have designed and fabricated the world‘s first junctionless devices have near ideal electrical pro-
junctionless transistor that significantly reduces perties and behave like the most perfect transistors.
power consumption and greatly simplifies the fabri- Moreover, they have the potential of operating faster
cation process of silicon chips,” declared Tyndall‘s and using less energy than the conventional transi-
Professor Jean-Pierre Colinge. Tyndall National stors used in today s microprocessors,” said Professor