Tyndall National institute, Ireland, reports that a three-year U.S.-Ireland collaborative scientific project aims to reduce power consumption and increase battery life in mobile devices. Researchers will create and test the properties of atomically thin, two-dimensional layers of semiconductors called Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMD).
These layers are 100,000 times smaller than the smallest thing the human eye can see. The properties these materials have displayed to date suggest that they could facilitate extremely efficient power usage and high performance computing.
Leading researchers from the Republic of Ireland (Tyndall National Institute & Dublin City University); Northern Ireland (Queens University Belfast); and the United States (University of Texas at Dallas) are collaborating to develop ultra-efficient electronic materials through the UNITE project: Understanding the Nature of Interfaces in Two-Dimensional Electronic Devices. Researchers will explore new semiconducting materials in the miniaturization of transistors, which are essential to all portable devices.
“Materials that we currently rely on, such as silicon, are expected to soon reach the limit of their performance,” says Dr. Paul Hurley, Tyndall’s lead researcher. “If we want to continue to increase performance, while maintaining or even reducing power consumption, it is important to explore these new TMD materials.”
The application of these materials in transistors could prolong the battery charge life of portable devices and phones, as well as enabling applications in larger more power-intensive operations such as data storage and server centers.
UNITE builds on a previous highly successful U.S.-Ireland collaborative project called FOCUS. The success of this project played a role in demonstrating why funders should back the new project, including training for five graduate students in the USA and Ireland, as well as student exchanges between the Institutes, which will provide a broader scientific and cultural experience for the graduates involved.
