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The silicon it is the material of electronics but, as we have had the opportunity to say several times, although deserving of great gratitude for all the innovation it has allowed in the last 50 years, it does not represent the ideal semiconductor and, sooner or later, it will have to step aside in favor of better solutions.
Silicon, on the other hand, has its own problems: although it allows electrons to move easily in its structure, it is not so affable towards the gaps, it is also not a great conductor of heat and this requires, as known, cooling systems to prevent it from overheating.
Thus a team of researchers made up of professionals from the MIT, the University of Houston and other institutions started evaluating a material called “cubic boron arsenide“as a possible alternative to silicon. Initial feedback is positive, because the material has proven better features such as high electron and hole mobility, as well as excellent thermal conductivity.
The qualities found are so good that, according to the researchers, the cubic boron arsenide is “the best semiconductor material ever found and possibly the best possible“, we read on pages of MIT. Better, however, not to get carried away by enthusiasm. “special methods“that they allowed to evaluate “small regions within the material”.
“More work will be needed to determine whether cubic boron arsenide can be produced in a practical and cost-effective form, let alone replace the ubiquitous silicon.” We are only at the beginning of a long journey. The fact that it presents a thermal conductivity almost 10 times greater than silicon and a very good bandgap, in addition to the high mobility of electrons and holes, makes the material worthy of more study.
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“Heat is now a major bottleneck for many electronic devices. Silicon carbide is replacing silicon for power electronics in major electric vehicle companies, including Tesla, as it has three times the thermal conductivity of silicon despite lower electrical mobility Imagine what boron arsenides can achieve, with 10 times higher thermal conductivity and much higher mobility than silicon. It can be a turning point“said researcher Jungwoo Shin.
Not only the thermal conductivity of the material is the best of any semiconductor but it is also the third in an absolute sense, next to the diamond and isotopically enriched cubic boron nitride. The challenge now is to find practical ways to produce this material in usable quantities and check other properties such as long-term stability. In short, from laboratory tests to a finished and working chip there is a world yet to be discovered.
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