Scientists To Change World’s Electronics Forever With New Discovery

by Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

WASHINGTON/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Scientists have presented a discovery expected to change computing and electronics forever.

A study published after the New Year and monitored by Worthy News on Sunday showed scientists creating the world’s first functional semiconductor made from graphene. That material is said to be rigid, flexible, light, and with a high resistance.

Their discovery comes at a time when silicon, the material from which nearly all modern electronics are made, is reaching its limit, experts said.

Scientists have been racing to develop graphene semiconductors because of their reported superior speed and energy efficiency compared to silicon.

The study, published in Nature on January 3, demonstrates a functional graphene semiconductor that is suitable for use in nanoelectronics.

The authors said the discovery could mark a significant step toward the next generation of computing, opening the doors to a new way of building electronics.

ELECTRONICS SHIFT

“We don’t know where this will end, but we know we’re opening the door for a major paradigm shift in electronics,” said lead author Walter de Heer of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States in a statement. “Graphene is the next step. Who knows what the next steps are after that, but there’s a good chance graphene could take over as the paradigm for the next 50 years.”

De Heer started to explore carbon-based materials as potential semiconductors early in his career and then switched to two-dimensional graphene in 2001. He knew then that graphene had potential for electronics.

“We were motivated by the hope of introducing three special properties of graphene into electronics,” he said. “It’s an extremely robust material, one that can handle very large currents and can do so without heating up and falling apart.”

He suggested his team is making history as before silicon, there were vacuum tubes, and before that, there were wires and telegraphs.

Silicon is one of many steps in the history of electronics, and the next step could be graphene, he stressed.

“To me, this is like a Wright brothers moment. They built a plane that could fly 300 feet (92 meters) through the air. But the skeptics asked why the world would need flight when it already had fast trains and boats. But they persisted, and it was the beginning of a technology that can take people across oceans,” De Heer said.

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