Electronic metadevices break barriers to ultra-fast communications

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - Researchers have come up with a new approach to electronics that involves engineering metastructures at the sub-wavelength scale. It could launch the next generation of ultra-fast devices for exchanging massive amounts of data, with applications in 6G communications and beyond. Until now, the ability to make electronic devices faster has come down to a simple principle: scaling down transistors and other components. But this approach is reaching its limit, as the benefits of shrinking are counterbalanced by detrimental effects like resistance and decreased output power. Elison Matioli of the Power and Wide-band-gap Electronics Research Lab ( POWERlab ) in EPFL's School of Engineering explains that further miniaturization is therefore not a viable solution to better electronics performance. "New papers come out describing smaller and smaller devices, but in the case of materials made from gallium nitride, the best devices in terms of frequency were already published a few years back," he says. "After that, there is really nothing better, because as device size is reduced, we face fundamental limitations.