...VERY interesting news... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: VE2UM
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 10:55:27 am
content: Hi all...This is my first post here (I've been viewing Dave's videos for a while, especially teardowns...)But this news (shall i call it atto-power transistors) is at my eyes extremely interesting..And originating from Cambridge University, this is serious stuff... Even Dave Jones will find it interesting.http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/engineers-design-ultralow-power-transistors-that-could-function-for-years-without-a-batterySome personal presentation now... Name is Normand Martel, from Montréal, Québec in Canada. i am an electronics professional and enthusiast, ham radio operator (nobody's perfect... ) and regular Youtube EEVBlog watcher.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 05:12:57 pm
content: Single transistor is virtually useless. Eventually transistors connect to things. Can they build executive devices that can last as long?The article is a lot marketing. And presence of IoT puts it into BS category right away.I do not criticize the researchers, they probably did a good job (the actual article costs money), but it is not as big of a deal as press release describes it.

author: VE2UM
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 10:42:57 pm
content: It's sure that a single transistor is virtually useless, but it's interest is, for me, in use in microprocessors/microcontrollers.Also, what's the device's internal capacitance and how much the consumption will rise as clock speed rise... That has to be known...But for ultra-low power, this transistor will be a net plus... as for complex fast processors where power dissipation becomes an important obstacle...But thanks for the reply.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 08:38:52 am
content: Just looks like any old transistors, biased down so that Rds(on) is extremely high (Gohms?), and cutoff has very low leakage (< fA?).They're talking about TFT in compound semiconductors, so the mobility will be poor, but you won't notice because the performance factor will be orders of magnitude below that of, say, vacuum tubes.It's a step backwards, in a way.If an application needs extremely little current draw anyway (example: slow clock frequencies and small LCD panels, like conventional digital watches), it's a net win.The downside to IoT stuff is, the radio still kills you. Sooner or later, you need to beep milliwatts worth of RF, which dominates your power consumption whether the control circuit is fabricated in extremely low power parts or not.Perhaps an extremely low power, low bandwidth (single bps?) networking protocol will be developed that can harness such things.I've heard of BT for monitoring inventory, as in, having a module in each drawer and bin. The required bitrate of such a network is infinitesimally low, perhaps mbps per device (no, that's not Mbps!). If such things could be developed as adhesive stickers that run on ambient light, or contain a battery that lasts >5yr, they might use this sort of technology for a large part of the functionality.Tim

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2016, 09:53:25 pm
content: What a redicilous article.First they start with repeating the title a few times.After that a bunch of unfounded magic.Then a populistic quote about an aa battery.Well, if they use an aa battery it would still be empty after a few decades, even if they don't connected the circuit at all.Yuch.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2016, 09:56:53 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on October 23, 2016, 09:53:25 pmThe battery shelf life is 5 years max.That's not the point of comparison. Comparisons like that use full energy of the battery as if there is no internal self degradation. This is useful as a reference. This does not say that you will be able to run this device on AA battery forever, it says that you will need much smaller battery.All that does not make the whole thing much less of a BS, of course.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2016, 03:25:19 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on October 23, 2016, 09:56:53 pmThat depends on the battery. Many are good for 10 years without breaking down from corrosion, although they may lose half their capacity to self consumption. 15 year survival gets rarer. 20 years tends to get expensive, but people like Tadiran make batteries designed for even longer life.