Feature Tech

Looking for Mr. Goodoxide

The hard-pressed semiconductor industry strives to replace silicon's near-perfect mate

By Peter Weiss

- More than 2 years ago

Breaking up is hard to do—especially after 40 years together. It’s even tougher when those 40 years were spent constantly side by side, fostering an upstart technology that has changed the world.

Pushing limits, a layer only 1.5 nanometers thick (15 angstroms, ) of silicon dioxide (SiO2), which has a dielectric constant of 4, separates the silicon from the gate in this model of a transistor.