'Negative capacitance' could bring more efficient transistors (PhysOrg)

December 19, 2017 by Emil Venere, Purdue University

Researchers have experimentally demonstrated how to harness a property called negative capacitance for a new type of transistor that could reduce power consumption, validating a theory proposed in 2008 by a team at Purdue University.

The researchers used an extremely thin, or 2-D, layer of the semiconductor molybdenum disulfide to make a channel adjacent to a critical part of transistors called the gate. Then they used a "ferroelectric material" called hafnium zirconium oxide to create a key component in the newly designed gate called a negative capacitor.

Capacitance, or the storage of electrical charge, normally has a positive value. However, using the ferroelectric material in a transistor's gate allows for negative capacitance, which could result in far lower power consumption to operate a transistor. Such an innovation could bring more efficient devices that run longer on a battery charge.

Hafnium oxide is now widely used as the dielectric, or insulating material, in the gates of today's transistors. The new design replaces the hafnium oxide with hafnium zirconium oxide, in work led by Peide Ye, Purdue's Richard J. and Mary Jo Schwartz Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
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Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-12-negative-capacitance-efficient-transistors.html#jCp