A material that will allow building a transistor that could double up as a microprocessor and memory has been discovered.

Thermistor

New Lister
Abstract
Ferroelectric field-effect transistors employ a ferroelectric material as a gate insulator, the polarization state of which can be detected using the channel conductance of the device. As a result, the devices are potentially of use in non-volatile memory technology, but they suffer from short retention times, which limits their wider application. Here, we report a ferroelectric semiconductor field-effect transistor in which a two-dimensional ferroelectric semiconductor, indium selenide (α-In2Se3), is used as the channel material in the device. α-In2Se3 was chosen due to its appropriate bandgap, room-temperature ferroelectricity, ability to maintain ferroelectricity down to a few atomic layers and its potential for large-area growth. A passivation method based on the atomic layer deposition of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) was developed to protect and enhance the performance of the transistors. With 15-nm-thick hafnium oxide (HfO2) as a scaled gate dielectric, the resulting devices offer high performance with a large memory window, a high on/off ratio of over 108, a maximum on current of 862 μA μm−1 and a low supply voltage.
Source
 

Bolo Yeung

Lister
The amount of technological knowledge that we have accumulated amazes me, my concern is if an event wiped out all the technology devices and manufacturing capabilities basically taking us back to the stone age, how long would it take us to get back to this level? assuming that books were also wiped out.
 

shocks

Elder Lister
The amount of technological knowledge that we have accumulated amazes me, my concern is if an event wiped out all the technology devices and manufacturing capabilities basically taking us back to the stone age, how long would it take us to get back to this level? assuming that books were also wiped out.
It would depend on how many humans survived, if we all survived, then a generation is enough to bring us back to the 20th century
 

Aviator

Elder Lister
Isn't the speed of a device dependent on its ability to switch on and off very fast? In other words, poor retention?
So this new FET may not be ideal for current high-speed applications.
 

Aviator

Elder Lister
The amount of technological knowledge that we have accumulated amazes me, my concern is if an event wiped out all the technology devices and manufacturing capabilities basically taking us back to the stone age, how long would it take us to get back to this level? assuming that books were also wiped out.
A few years only. Remember we will be rebuilding something we already know, not making a discovery.

And on the same line, if the entire population was wiped and a new one comes in, the technological direction would be totally different from what we have gone through.
 

Kasaman

Elder Lister
A few years only. Remember we will be rebuilding something we already know, not making a discovery.

And on the same line, if the entire population was wiped and a new one comes in, the technological direction would be totally different from what we have gone through.
can that really happen ?
 

Thermistor

New Lister
It would depend on how many humans survived, if we all survived, then a generation is enough to bring us back to the 20th century
Remember Germany was "totally" destroyed during the second World War due to Hitler never surrendering even when it was clear that he had been overwhelmed. But since a good number of scientists were preserved the industries were rebuilt
 

Thermistor

New Lister
Isn't the speed of a device dependent on its ability to switch on and off very fast? In other words, poor retention?
So this new FET may not be ideal for current high-speed applications.
I think it may be optimised remember you already have the advantage of not sourcing for the data to to be process elsewhere but rather within the processor itself. What will have to improve is the switching on and off time of the transistors and it seems the time is not very long.
 
Top