Researchers warn of major flaw in transistor theory

[I.S.T.]

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3UWVKDZVTRFDWQSNDLRSK HSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=217600659

As a layman, I have zero idea if this is true or not. Is this possible?

[AlStrong]

First thought was... quantum physics.

[Albuquerque]

Yeah, the giveaway there is "we don't know what's going on", which also lends me to believe quantum physics is involved.

I think the cliff notes version of that article goes like this: there's a certain amount of electrical noise to expect from transistors switching from on <-> off states. Like it's not a pure toggle, but instead has some "ringing" to it perhaps. The currently accepted model for this ringing says that the frequency of that ring will get higher as the transistor gets smaller.

The article suggests that evidence has been found quite to the contrary -- the ringing stays at a relatively constant frequency, but the amplitude somehow gets worse as the power is turned down. That part doesn't exactly make sense to me actually, but I also know that I'm limited to about 0.00125% of their EE knowledge ;)

Anyway, I believe that's the crux of the situation, and they really don't know why it happens that way, so they don't have any good way to correct it / correct FOR it.