David Savastano, Editor04.24.13
Since the earliest days of the first field effect transistors (FET) developed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in the 1920s and the gate FETs developed by John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain and William Bradford Shockley at Bell Labs in the 1940s, transistors have come to play a major role in electronics, as they are designed to amplify and switch electronic signals and electrical power.
Founded in 2010, PST Sensors, a spin-out of the University of Cape Town, announced that in conjunction with the NanoSciences Innovation Centre at the University of Cape Town, it has developed a current switching transistor (CST), a two-way switch. PST Sensors announced its findings during Printed Electronics Europe 2013, held in Berlin from April 17-18, 2013.
“We have developed a two-way switch manufactured by printing metal contacts and silicon,” said David Britton, PST Sensors’ chief technology officer, who invented the CST with colleagues Margit Harting and Stanley Walton. He noted that researchers at Cape Town have been working on this transistor for five years.
Unlike other transistors, the CST works as a two-way, or double-throw, switch. It has three terminals like other transistors: The emitter or source; the base or gate; and collector or drain. Like other transistors, there is a transfer resistance between any two pairs of terminals.
“A transistor is a three-terminal device which has a transfer resistance,” Britton noted. “Our current switching transistor has a small constant, ideally zero, emitter-collector current.”
The difference with the CST is that when a signal is applied to the base, it switches the direction of the current from between the base and the collector to between the emitter and the base. Typical transistors control the current between the emitter and collector.
PST Sensors has focused its attention on the temperature sensor field, and the University of Cape Town utilized PST Sensors’ printed silicon technology. Britton said that does not preclude using other materials for these CSTs.
“It does not have to be printed silicon, but can be made with other materials, Britton said.
This discovery has received notice from the scientific community, and Britton said that it is currently under review for publication by a major international physics journal.
Britton added that PST Sensors is already finding opportunities for its new transistors. “These are real devices and real measurements,” Britton said. “When we realized what we had, we were able to design some pretty interesting devices.”
“We have developed a two-way switch manufactured by printing metal contacts and silicon,” said David Britton, PST Sensors’ chief technology officer, who invented the CST with colleagues Margit Harting and Stanley Walton. He noted that researchers at Cape Town have been working on this transistor for five years.
Unlike other transistors, the CST works as a two-way, or double-throw, switch. It has three terminals like other transistors: The emitter or source; the base or gate; and collector or drain. Like other transistors, there is a transfer resistance between any two pairs of terminals.
“A transistor is a three-terminal device which has a transfer resistance,” Britton noted. “Our current switching transistor has a small constant, ideally zero, emitter-collector current.”
From left, PSTSensors' David Britton, Margit Harting and Stanley Watson invented the current switching transistor. |
PST Sensors has focused its attention on the temperature sensor field, and the University of Cape Town utilized PST Sensors’ printed silicon technology. Britton said that does not preclude using other materials for these CSTs.
“It does not have to be printed silicon, but can be made with other materials, Britton said.
This discovery has received notice from the scientific community, and Britton said that it is currently under review for publication by a major international physics journal.
Britton added that PST Sensors is already finding opportunities for its new transistors. “These are real devices and real measurements,” Britton said. “When we realized what we had, we were able to design some pretty interesting devices.”