Highly efficient logic gates and nanoscale switches to enhance smart phones and tablets 12/10/2013 - 00:00 By relentlessly miniaturizing a pre-World War II computer technology, and combining this with a new and durable material, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have built nanoscale switches and logic gates that operate more energy-efficiently than those now used by the billions in computers, tablets and smart phones.Electromechanical switches were the building blocks of electronics before the solid-state transistor was developed during the war. A version made from silicon carbide, at the tiniest of scales, snaps on and off like a light switch, and with none of the energy-wasting current leakage that plagues the smallest electronics today.The scientists report their findings today at the International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington D.C.The tiny switch's moving part is only about one cubic micron in volume, more than a thousand times smaller than devices made in today's mainstream microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Thus, this switch can move much faster and is much lighter.The switch has also proved durable, operating for more than 10 million cycles in air, at ambient temperatures and high heat without loss of performance—far longer than most other candidates for a non-leaking switch.
