• Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
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    23 days ago

    We’re not moving away from silicon anytime soon, I mean we’ve heard of the hype stories about gallium nitride and carbon nanotube transistors every few months now for nearly a decade

    I mean, I work with transistors and gallium nitride transistors are actually a thing. Like you can just buy them yourself. I’ve looked through a few examples and they seem pretty decent. Certainly there are much fewer of them than the silicon stuff, but I imagine it’s a new technology, so that makes sense.

    • Yes they are obviously a thing, but when we’re talking about CMOS logic circuits required for consumer electronics like smartphones, laptops and desktops, they’ve been around since 2016 in research papers, and haven’t really gone anywhere beyond more research papers.

      • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
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        23 days ago

        CMOS logic circuits required for consumer electronics like smartphones, laptops and desktops

        Obviously you won’t disrupt those massive sprawling supply chains for the most state of the art chips right away for such a new tech. However, the availability of discretes means that there is some appetite for non silicon tech.

      • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
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        23 days ago

        No, I’m an immigrant.

        Wait, you’re Dutch? We might actually be going to the same uni if you are studying electrical engineering 😳

    • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      22 days ago

      are gallium nitride transistors what make all the new GaN (gallium nitride) USB power delivery devices work? I have one and its awesome. Of course the gallium nitride isn’t being used for a microprocessor in that case.

      • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml
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        22 days ago

        It seems to be the case. The GaN MOSFETs I am seeing on the market seem to have very good power characteristics, much better than the silicon stuff so I am not surprised to see GaN MOSFETs be used for power supplies.