Center for Nanotechnology, NASA Ames Research Center , Moffett Field, California 94035, United States.
Nano Lett. 2017 Apr 12;17(4):2146-2151. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b04363. Epub 2017 Mar 24.
Vacuum tubes that sparked the electronics era had given way to semiconductor transistors. Despite their faster operation and better immunity to noise and radiation compared to the transistors, the vacuum device technology became extinct due to the high power consumption, integration difficulties, and short lifetime of the vacuum tubes. We combine the best of vacuum tubes and modern silicon nanofabrication technology here. The surround gate nanoscale vacuum channel transistor consists of sharp source and drain electrodes separated by sub-50 nm vacuum channel with a source to gate distance of 10 nm. This transistor performs at a low voltage (<5 V) and provides a high drive current (>3 microamperes). The nanoscale vacuum channel transistor can be a possible alternative to semiconductor transistors beyond Moore's law.
真空管开创了电子时代，随后被半导体晶体管取代。尽管与晶体管相比，真空管具有更快的运算速度和更好的抗噪声和辐射能力，但由于真空管的高功耗、集成困难和寿命短，这项真空管技术最终还是被淘汰了。在这里，我们结合了真空管和现代硅纳米制造技术的优势。这种环绕栅纳米级真空通道晶体管由间距小于 50nm 的真空通道隔开的尖锐源极和漏极组成，源极到栅极的距离为 10nm。这种晶体管的工作电压较低（<5V），驱动电流较大（>3 微安）。这种纳米级真空通道晶体管可能成为超越摩尔定律的半导体晶体管的一种替代方案。
