title: Multiple facets of tightly coupled transducer-transistor structures.
abstract: The ever increasing demand for data processing requires different paradigms for electronics. Excellent performance capabilities such as low power and high speed in electronics can be attained through several factors including using functional materials, which sometimes acquire superior electronic properties. The transduction-based transistor switching mechanism is one such possibility, which exploits the change in electrical properties of the transducer as a function of a mechanically induced deformation. Originally developed for deformation sensors, the technique is now moving to the centre stage of the electronic industry as the basis for new transistor concepts to circumvent the gate voltage bottleneck in transistor miniaturization. In issue 37 of Nanotechnology, Chang et al show the piezoelectronic transistor (PET), which uses a fast, low-power mechanical transduction mechanism to propagate an input gate voltage signal into an output resistance modulation. The findings by Chang et al will spur further research into piezoelectric scaling, and the PET fabrication techniques needed to advance this type of device in the future.
authors.affiliation: Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST), Group, Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering Division, School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Hadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heidari
authors.forename: Ravinder
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dahiya