Tokyo Scientists Develop Crystal-Based Transistor to Replace Silicon

Wafricnews - June 30, 2025

Tokyo — In what experts are calling a potential revolution for the future of microelectronics, a team of researchers in Japan has developed a powerful transistor that could leave traditional silicon behind.

The scientists, working at the Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, crafted their transistor using gallium-doped indium oxide — a crystal-like material that promises far greater performance than silicon, thanks to its superior ability to move electrons efficiently.

Dubbed a gate-all-around transistor, the design wraps the gate completely around the current-carrying channel, significantly improving control, scalability, and overall performance. This clever engineering addresses the so-called transistor scaling crisis, where traditional silicon-based devices struggle to keep pace with our hunger for faster, smaller, and more powerful electronics.

“By wrapping the gate around the entire channel, we improve both the efficiency and the ability to keep scaling the transistor down,” explained Dr. Anlan Chen, lead researcher on the project.

The Crystal Edge
Transistors are the heartbeat of modern electronics — from smartphones to supercomputers — but their traditional silicon construction is nearing its physical limits. The Tokyo team’s crystal-based approach uses gallium to “dope” the indium oxide, stabilizing its structure by suppressing oxygen-vacancy defects that typically hamper electron flow.

“Our method improves device reliability and stability under stress,” noted Professor Masaharu Kobayashi, a senior member of the team.

The researchers built the transistor by carefully layering the material using atomic-layer deposition, then crystallizing it through controlled heating. This process produced a highly ordered structure, unlocking electron mobility measured at 44.5 cm²/Vs — a figure that beats similar transistors reported so far.

Even under intense operating conditions, their new MOSFET device worked stably for nearly three hours, showing a robustness that researchers believe could enable it to power AI systems and massive data-processing workloads far beyond what today’s silicon can handle.

Keeping Moore’s Law Alive
Presented at the 2025 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits, this innovation could extend the promise of Moore’s Law — the famous observation that computing power roughly doubles every two years — into a post-silicon era.

For big data, artificial intelligence, and next-generation digital systems, these crystal-based transistors might become the new standard, unlocking faster, more reliable, and more sustainable computing.


By Wafricnews Desk.