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posted by n1 on Tuesday June 24 2014, @08:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the everything-is-something dept.

Faster and smaller transistors are being developed and tested, and here's one of the more interesting new designs. It is effectively a vacuum tube/transistor hybrid. By utilizing modern manufacturing processes it is possible to make extremely small vacuum tubes that do not have any of the problems of older tubes, and also happen to be able to operate in the terahertz range.

Although we are still at an early stage with our research, we believe the recent improvements we've made to the vacuum-channel transistor could one day have a huge influence on the electronics industry, particularly for applications where speed is paramount. Our very first effort to fashion a prototype produced a device that could operate at 460 gigahertz -- roughly 10 times as fast as the best silicon transistor can manage. This makes the vacuum-channel transistor very promising for operating in what is sometimes known as the terahertz gap, the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum above microwaves and below infrared.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Tuesday June 24 2014, @09:39AM

    by hoochiecoochieman (4158) on Tuesday June 24 2014, @09:39AM (#59309)

    Does this mean I'll be able to buy a Fender Twin Reverb the size of a matchbox?

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  • (Score: 2) by unitron on Tuesday June 24 2014, @10:03AM

    by unitron (70) on Tuesday June 24 2014, @10:03AM (#59313) Journal

    Just as soon as you figure out how to shrink the power and output transformers as well.

    --
    something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
    • (Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Tuesday June 24 2014, @10:13AM

      by hoochiecoochieman (4158) on Tuesday June 24 2014, @10:13AM (#59315)

      Graphene should do it. Not so sure about the speakers, though.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 24 2014, @01:52PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 24 2014, @01:52PM (#59400)

        Multicast wi-fi earbuds?