Freescale breaks through on MOSFETs

Boffins and boffinettes have been working on trying to create a viable gallium arsenide MOSFET transistor since the 1960s without much in the way of success.

They have been trying, because if they could get one to work it should be able to conduct electrons up to 20 times faster than traditional silicon MOSFETs.

Karl Johnson, director of Freescale's Microwave and Mixed Signal Technologies Laboratory, said that one of the big problems with gallium arsenide MOSFETs is uncontrolled current and cost.

Freescale said it has sorted out the problem of uncontrolled current, but it still seems a bit pricey. This is because there is less gallium arsenide than there is silicon. He estimates that it will be three to five years before the MOSFET is manufactured, and even then, it may be only used in specialty applications.

That's what appears to be the case, says this page. µ