INTEC investigates atomic-scale materials for the next generation of semiconductors
University researchers are studying a combination of borophene and graphine with the potential to develop Beyond-CMOS electronic devices and open new avenues to overcome the limitations of the silicon-based technology used worldwide.
SANTO DOMINGO - Researchers from Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) are studying extremely thin, atomic-scale materials that could be used in the future to manufacture smaller and more efficient semiconductors, microchips, and electronic devices.
The research aims to provide solutions to one of the main challenges facing the technology industry: silicon, the material currently used to manufacture most chips, is reaching physical limits that make it difficult to continue reducing the size of electronic components. The study, titled "Borophene-Graphine Composite (BGC) for Electronics Beyond CMOS: A Falsifiable Framework of First Principles, Phonons, Molecular Dynamics, and Quantum Transport," was developed by Baldo Alberto Luigi Dalporto, Sabine Mary, and Santiago Gallur, professors and researchers at INTEC.
Chips are present in everyday devices such as cell phones, computers and vehicles, as well as in the large data centers that support numerous digital services.
To continue increasing their capacity and reducing their size, scientists are investigating materials that can function at much smaller scales than those currently available. Theoretical physics research seeks to identify materials capable of supporting the next generation of chips and microchips used in phones, computers, vehicles, and data centers, given the size limitations of silicon in the semiconductor industry.
As part of the research, INTEC researchers are combining two types of materials: borophene, composed of boron atoms, and graphine, made of carbon. The goal is to determine if the combination of these two materials can control the flow of electricity. If this control can be maintained at the atomic scale, it could serve as a basis for manufacturing smaller electronic components and devices, and for creating technologies to replace current silicon-based ones.
While much of the industry continues to use manufacturing processes of tens or hundreds of nanometers, some developed decades ago, INTEC is investigating two-dimensional materials whose thickness is measured in fractions of a nanometer, a dimension close to the scale of atoms themselves.
semiconductor industry
The INTEC study is part of the field known as Beyond-CMOS, which investigates materials and mechanisms capable of reducing voltage, leakage, and energy consumption in future generations of electronic devices. The study itself establishes that transistor scaling increasingly depends on materials capable of maintaining electrostatic control at atomic thicknesses.
Among the applications evaluated is the tunneling field-effect transistor, known as TFET, a device that uses quantum tunneling phenomena to control current flow. The researchers suggest that a configuration with suitable properties could later be used in transistors, sensors, quantum capacitance devices, plasmonics, and tunneling diodes.
The work places INTEC within the research on atomic-scale materials and technologies geared towards the next generations of the semiconductor industry.
About the research professors at INTEC
Baldo Alberto Luigi Dalporto is a professor and researcher in the Engineering Department at INTEC, an electronics engineer and nuclear physicist specializing in electronics applied to physics, and the lead author of the study. He was responsible for the conceptualization, methodology, project management, visualization, and writing of the paper. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the American Physical Society, and the Network for Educational Studies.
Sabine Mary is a researcher at INTEC and co-author of the study. Her participation focused on the methodology, validation, and scientific supervision of the research. Santiago Gallur is also a researcher at INTEC and co-author of the work. He participated in the conceptualization, formal analysis, methodology, and validation of the study, as well as in the review of its scientific content.