• A MIT spinout, Cambridge Electronics, has announced it will sell gallium nitride transistors and power electronic circuits. The pitch is that they could cut energy usage in applications like data centers, electric cars, and consumer devices. It can do this because it discovered a gallium nitride breakthrough which cocerces gallium nitride to not conduct by default.
  • The first application is in power electronics -- small devices in everything you use that convert electricity to higher or lower voltages and currents. Currently, power-electronic systems largely rely on silicon transistors, which are inefficient and give off heat.
  • So Cambridge Electronics has developed gallium nitride transistors that sport one-tenth the resistance of silicon-based transistors, which has several implications: power electronics can be more efficient, faster, and most importantly, smaller. Imagine if your laptop power adapter was actually inside your laptop.

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