A team of researchers from Peking University claims to have developed a non-silicon transistor that is faster and more power-efficient than the latest tech in the industry. If the claim, which is published in the journal Nature Materials (out of London), is accurate, it would mean that China has bleeding-edge tech that could rival chips from Intel and TSMC, among others. Still, it’s a long way from publishing a research paper to turning the tech industry on its head.

The team developed a two-dimensional transistor using bismuth oxyselenide. The team’s transistor has Gate-all-around technology, the latest field-effect transistor technology. It replaces FinFET. Because GAAFET means less current leakage and helps chip makers create ever-smaller transistors, the inclusion of GAA in the research team’s silicon-alternative efforts is crucial.

Although the 2D bismuth transistor tech can potentially be more sturdy than silicon, the biggest draw for China could be that it might be able to use equipment it already has to produce transistors on a large scale.

Interestingly, the team says that it managed to test its own transistor tech against Intel, Samsung, and TSMC technology and that it performed better than all of them, according to Tom’s Hardware. That’s a bold claim to make, and we’ll believe it when we see it.

Even before China and the US became embroiled in the Trump administration’s tariffs, the US took steps to prevent China from getting its hands on the latest technology, including silicon transistors. In the face of these roadblocks, China has looked for ways to compete with the world’s cutting-edge tech with different materials and home-brewed software. One of the more surprising examples of its occasional success is DeepSeek, which splashed onto the large language model (LLM) AI scene and battered Nvidia’s stock (for a time).

The fear with technology from China is that the country will use it to collect data on foreign states and their citizens. DeepSeek, for example, appears to be sending user data to China. Huawei, which is based in China, has been looking for ways to produce better processors, but has been challenged by roadblocks put up by the US. Although the research team doesn’t indicate that Huawei has shown interest in its new transistor tech, it wouldn’t be surprising if Huawei and others use it as a way to work around the limitations of their aging lithography machines.

By: DocMemory
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