IBM Corp researchers have reported another breakthrough, claiming to have fabricated a lateral bipolar transistor that can be clocked at up to 20GHz: the transistor conducts charge horizontally and uses both positively- and negatively-charged particles to carry current and the scientists said the transistor’s speed improvement stems from its lateral design, which decreases capacitance and resistance, and power consumption is reduced by using Silicon-on-insulator rather than pure silicon; the part is compatible with currently used bipolar circuitry, and the organisation means that the cells take up less room than fast vertical transistors, enabling fast, low power devices to be compact; the Silicon-on-insulator material is fabricated by growing ultra-thin layers of Silicon on an insulator.
