Silicon is currently the foundation of modern technology, but it has limitations as a semiconductor. While it facilitates easy flow of electrons, it is not as receptive to holes (positively charged electrons) which are crucial for some types of chips.
Furthermore, its heat conductivity is low, leading to frequent overheating issues and the need for expensive cooling systems in computers.
One of the most promising candidates to outperform silicon is cubic boron arsenide (c-BA).
In this article, we will explore recent CBA research and potential applications of c-BA, and how it might play out as replacement to silicon as a leading semiconductor.
Key Points:
- Cubic Boron Arsenide has the potential to outperform traditional silicon semiconductors
- Cubic boron arsenide has the third-best thermal conductivity of any material, behind only diamond and isotopically enriched cubic boron nitride.
- The high thermal conductivity makes CBA an attractive material for heat dissipation.
- C-BA has good electron and hole mobility, which is important for semiconductor devices.
- C-BA has a good bandgap, which means it can potentially be used in a wide range of electronic and optoelectronic applications.
- C-BA has been shown to be stable at high temperatures, making it suitable for use in high-power electronic devices.
- Researchers are still exploring the full potential of c-BA and working on improving its synthesis and processing techniques.
- So far, only lab-scale batches have been made but pending research could prove its economical viability as a replacement for silicon in the near future.
Cubic Boron Arsenide is rapidly becoming the favourite next-generation semiconductor material, offering improved performance and heat dissipation over silicon.
One of the most important properties of c-BA is its high thermal conductivity, which makes it an attractive material for use in high-power electronic devices.
C-BA has a thermal conductivity almost 10 times greater than that of silicon, and is only surpassed by diamond and isotopically enriched cubic boron nitride.
Another important property of c-BA is its good electron and hole mobility.
Unlike silicon, which is good for electron mobility but not for hole mobility, c-BA has good mobility for both electrons and holes (positively charged electrons).
This makes it an ideal material for building high-performance semiconductor devices.
C-BA also has a good bandgap, which is an important property for semiconductor materials. The bandgap determines the energy required to move an electron from the valence band to the conduction band.
C-BA’s bandgap is similar to that of silicon, which means it can potentially be used in a wide range of electronic and optoelectronic applications.
One of the challenges of using c-BA as a semiconductor is its synthesis and processing. The material is difficult to synthesize and process, which has limited its widespread use.
However, researchers are making progress in improving the synthesis and processing techniques, and are exploring new methods for producing c-BA with better quality and purity.
Why Cubic Boron Arsenide is a promising semiconductor material
Cubic Boron Arsenide, also known as c-BAs, has several advantages over silicon that make it a promising semiconductor material. Its improved charge mobility makes it an excellent conductor of current, and it has ten times higher thermal conductivity than silicon, making it a better heat conductor and dissipator.
A Cubic Boron Arsenide semiconductor would have less resistance for both positive and negative charges
Boron arsenide has the potential to be a highly desirable material for use as a semiconductor due to its exceptional mobility for both electrons and holes which are the positive and negative charges in a semiconductor, respectively.
This quality allows for less resistance in the transport of both charges in a device, making it a ideal semiconductor material.
While silicon has a good electron mobility, it falls short in hole mobility and similarly, other materials like gallium arsenide have a good electron mobility but poor hole mobility.
Heat dissipation in high-density devices
Cubic Boron Arsenide’s superior thermal conductivity makes it a viable solution to the problem of heat dissipation in high-density devices.
With electronic components becoming smaller and more densely packed, efficient heat dissipation becomes increasingly important to prevent efficiency and safety issues.
Cubic Boron Arsenide as a potential material for photovoltaic and light detection applications
Cubic Boron Arsenide’s transport properties of photocarriers could make it a suitable material for photovoltaic and light detection applications.
This, coupled with its improved charge mobility and thermal conductivity, gives it an edge over silicon and other semiconductor materials.
Heat is already causing silicon to be replaced for power electronics
Silicon carbide is replacing silicon for power electronics in major EV industries including Tesla, since it has three times higher thermal conductivity than silicon despite its lower electrical mobilities. Imagine what boron arsenides can achieve, with 10 times higher thermal conductivity and much higher mobility than silicon. It can be a gamechanger.
Jungwoo Shin via MIT News Office, MIT postdoc and Lead Author “High Ambipolar Mobility in Cubic Boron Arsenide.”
Cubic boron arsenide could end up outperforming silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), gallium arsenide (GAs), and graphene for power electronics in the long run.
New work confirms a unique combination of both high mobility for electrons and holes in Cubic Boron Arsenide
Key Points:
- Researchers from MIT and the University of Houston have conducted experiments that demonstrate the potential of cubic boron arsenide as a next-generation semiconductor material.
- The team found that cubic boron arsenide has high electron and hole mobility, making it an ideal semiconductor material, and its thermal conductivity is almost 10 times greater than that of silicon, which could help dissipate heat from devices more efficiently.
- The team used optical detection methods and ultrafast laser spectroscopy to study the material’s properties, and the results confirmed earlier predictions made by MIT researchers using quantum mechanical density functional calculations.
- While the material still faces challenges in terms of large-scale production and integration into existing semiconductor technology, the research suggests that cubic boron arsenide has the potential to outperform traditional semiconductor materials such as silicon and gallium arsenide in a range of applications.
Researchers from MIT, University of Houston, and other institutions have discovered that cubic boron arsenide, a material with high mobility for both electrons and holes and exceptional thermal conductivity, is the best semiconductor material found to date, and possibly the best one ever.
Early research had theoretically predicted that Cubic boron arsenide would have high thermal conductivity and it was later proved experimentally in three separate papers in 2018.
A prediction made back in 2018 “that cubic boron arsenide would also have very high mobility for both electrons and holes” has now been confirmed experimentally made possible by advances in ultrafast laser grating systems at MIT.
The electronic properties of cubic boron arsenide were initially predicted based on quantum mechanical density function calculations made by MIT professor of mechanical engineering Gang Chen’s group, and those predictions have now been validated through experiments conducted at MIT, using optical detection methods on samples made by Zhifeng Ren and members of the team at the University of Houston.
A promise confirmed, Cubic Boron Arsenide is the next-generation semiconductor to beat.
Key Points:
- Cubic boron arsenide is a promising candidate for high-speed, low-power electronics.
- The crystal structure of cubic boron arsenide offers exceptional thermal and mechanical properties.
- Using scanning ultrafast electron microscopy, researchers have revealed the electron dynamics in cubic boron arsenide.
- The observations show that cubic boron arsenide is a promising material for high-frequency electronics.
- The findings may lead to the development of faster and more efficient semiconductors.
Scanning ultrafast electron microscopy has confirmed the potential of cubic boron arsenide as the next-generation semiconductor. Researchers from UC Santa Barbara have revealed the secret to its high thermal conductivity.
Bolin Liao, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and his team were able to watch how electric charge moved in a new semiconductor material using a special imaging technique.
The technique, called scanning ultrafast electron microscopy, allowed the team to create movies of the generation and transport processes of the electric charge in this material.
This material is known as a III-V semiconductor, and it has excellent electrical and thermal properties.
The team found another beneficial property that adds to the material’s potential as a great semiconductor, which is described in their study published in the journal Matter.
The groundbreaking method that made the study of Cubic Boron Arsenide possible
The research team combined crystal growth skills with imaging prowess to study the energy and charge transport processes of c-BAs. The method used scanning electron microscopy and femtosecond ultrafast lasers to make movies of the microscopic energy and charge transport processes.
The exciting discovery: Cubic Boron Arsenide’s persistent “hot” electrons
Researchers discovered that Cubic Boron Arsenide’s “hot” electrons persisted for longer periods than in conventional semiconductors. This property is related to the same feature that is responsible for the material’s high thermal conductivity. As a result, more energy can efficiently be harvested from the high-energy electrons, making it an even more promising material for solar cells.
