Who will replace semiconductor materials to become the next king?

Silicon materials or existing semiconductor materials are the basic materials for electronic products. In the field of electronic lighting, the electronic field has been running for decades. It can be said that semiconductors are the cornerstone of modern human civilization. The old saying goes: When the moon is full, there is a loss. After the peak, there must be a trough. With the advancement of science and technology, traditional semiconductors can no longer fully meet human needs, and new materials will surely come to the fore.

As early as 2009, Intel claimed that the next 10 years will be the last 10 years of silicon as the core material of CPU. Intel will only develop 3 generations of CPU based on silicon material at most, and then it will give up silicon material in 2017 and launch the first A non-silicon microprocessor.

Who could replace the current semiconductor material to become the next king?

Graphene


In 2010, two Russian-born scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for their outstanding research on graphene (also known as single-layer graphite). Graphene is a two-dimensional crystal composed of carbon atoms that is peeled off from a graphite material. The thickness of only one layer of carbon atoms is the thinnest and most rigid material so far. Its conductive and thermal conductivity is superior to silicon and Other traditional semiconductor materials. Since electrons conduct at 100 times faster speed in graphene than silicon, this will bring many advances to high-speed computer chips and biochemical sensors.

Graphene nanoribbon

Dai Hongjie, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University in the United States, led the research team and found that graphene nanoribbons can be used as semiconductor crystal materials. This may be integrated into high-performance computer chips in the future, increasing chip speed and performance, reducing heat consumption, and replacing most of today's energy consumption. Silicon made chips.

Molybdenum (MoS2)

The Laboratory of Nanoelectronics and Structures (LANES) at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, claims that semiconductors are made of monolayer materials called molybdenum (MoS2) or used to make smaller, more energy-efficient electronics. The chip, in the next generation of nanoelectronic devices, will have advantages over conventional silicon materials or fullerenes. Compared with silicon, one of the advantages of molybdenum is its smaller size, molybdenum monolayer is two-dimensional, and silicon is a three-dimensional material. Another major advantage of molybdenum is its lower energy consumption than silicon.

gallium



In particular, gallium arsenide (GaAs) has a high electron mobility and can conduct current faster under the same conditions. If used on a computer, it can speed up the computer's speed. Christopher Hinkle, a materials scientist at the University of Texas, found that if an alloy of three metals, indium, gallium, and arsenic were used instead of silicon in a semiconductor chip, the conductivity would be 10 times faster.

Of course, these new materials have certain shortcomings. They are more easily damaged or more difficult to obtain than traditional materials. However, in view of human development, new things will always win.