(National Institute of Standards and Technology) - Chip
manufacturers beware: There’s a newfound flaw in our
understanding of transistor noise, a phenomenon affecting the
electronic on-off switch that makes computer circuits possible.
According to the engineers at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) who discovered the problem, it
will soon stand in the way of creating more efficient, lower-
powered devices like cell phones and pacemakers unless we solve
it. While exploring transistor behavior, the team found evidence
that a widely accepted model explaining errors caused by
electronic “noise” in the switches does not fit the facts. A
transistor must be made from highly purified materials to
function; defects in these materials, like rocks in a stream,
can divert the flow of electricity and cause the device to
malfunction. This, in turn, makes it appear to fluctuate
erratically between “on” and “off” states. For decades, the
engineering community has largely accepted a theoretical model
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