Transistor
A tiny electrical switch; chips contain billions of them.
A transistor is a switch that turns the flow of electric current on and off. Computer chips are built from billions of them. Making transistors smaller, and finding new shapes for them, is how chips have kept getting faster and more efficient.
Where it matters
Technologies we track
- Gate-all-around nanosheet transistorsStep 4 · On saleA transistor is a switch: a gate turns the flow of current through a channel on and off.
- Atom-thin 2D semiconductor chipsStep 1 · LabSome materials can be made just a few atoms thick, like sheets of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2).