Japanese Scientists Develop Indium-Gallium Oxide Transistors, Breaking Through Silicon's Limits

Scientists at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science have made a major leap in overcoming the physical limits of modern electronics. They've developed and successfully tested tiny transistors fundamentally different from conventional silicon, opening the door to even smaller and more powerful devices.

The core problem for today's microelectronics is that silicon is hitting its physical limits. Shrinking silicon-based transistors is becoming increasingly difficult as they start losing stability and efficiency. The Japanese team found an alternative – they completely ditched silicon for a transistor's key component. Instead, they used indium oxide modified with gallium (InGaOx).

These new transistors show high electron mobility – 44.5 cm²/V·s. While this figure is lower than the best silicon transistors, it sets a record for metal-oxide-based devices with a similar architecture. The "gate-all-around" design combined with the new material's properties make these transistors ideal candidates for radical further miniaturization. Crucially, the device operated stably under load for several hours (nearly 3 hours in testing), a vital factor for practical use.

The key advantage is the potential to create integrated circuits with unprecedented density. When silicon transistors inevitably hit the absolute physical limit of miniaturization (which is fast approaching), technologies like this InGaOx-based one could step in, allowing far more transistors to be packed onto the same chip area. Additionally, unlike silicon, metal oxides can be transparent and deposited onto flexible substrates. This unlocks possibilities for entirely new device form factors – think flexible displays, wearable electronics, or tech seamlessly integrated into clothing and interiors.

The findings were presented at the prestigious 2025 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits. While it will take time before these transistors see mass adoption in consumer electronics (scaling up production and integrating them into existing processes requires refinement), the research makes one thing clear: the future of microelectronics lies in combining novel materials like indium-gallium oxide with advanced architectures like gate-all-around.