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Replacing Silicon With Gallium Nitride In Chips Could Reduce Energy Use By 20%

Posted by samzenpus on from the more-bang-for-your-buck dept.

Mickeycaskill writes: Cambridge Electronics Inc (CEI), formed of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), claim semiconductors made of gallium nitride (GaN) could reduce the power consumption of data centers and consumer electronics by 20 percent by 2025. CEI has revealed a range of GaN transistors and power electronic circuits that have just one tenth of the resistance of silicon, resulting in much higher energy efficiency. The company claims to have overcome previous barriers to adoption such as safety concerns and expense through new manufacturing techniques. "Basically, we are fabricating our advanced GaN transistors and circuits in conventional silicon foundries, at the cost of silicon. The cost is the same, but the performance of the new devices is 100 times better," Cambridge Electronics researcher Bin Lu said.

4 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. One question by viperidaenz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What's Gallium Nitrade?

  2. Denser chips by Alain+Williams · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This suggests less heat which means that chips could be packed in more densely, need smaller heat sinks. This could also remove some of the heat issues associated with multi layer chips.

    A win in many ways!

  3. What goes around, comes around by BeerCat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I remember back in the 80s that light meters in cameras used to use Silicon (SPD - Silicon Photo Diode), but then they all started using Gallium Arsenide (GASP - Gallium Arsenide Photo Diode), as it reacted faster (presumably because of the lower resistance).

    There was even talk back then about making Gallium based semi-conductors, for the same reason.

    Good to see it coming to fruition

    --
    "She's furniture with a pulse"
  4. I doubt it is for *chips* themselves by PaulBu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    TFA is a bit light on details, but (having heard of GaN before), it is good at handling large voltages/currents, and they are probably talking about more efficient power supplies (saving 20%, apparently), not replacing Si in logic chips. Or maybe integrating power conversion onto processor die itself, but the latter is still made of good old CMOS. Currently, from what I've heard, a good chunk of pins on your processor are used to supply power -- if you think of it, 30W processor with 3V bias needs to get 10A of current.

    Paul B.