September 9, 2005 – Researchers at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) say they have built a “Mott insulator,” a metal-based device that they claim can conduct electricity at relatively low temperatures without generating heat, according to newswire reports.

The Mott insulator, named for 1977 Nobel Physics prize winner Sir Nevill Mott, is metal-based but typically does not conduct electrical charges, but the Korean researchers found that once prodded by a high-voltage shock it can conduct electricity at temperatures of 67 degrees Celsius.

“Silicon generates heat, making it impossible to place ultrathin circuits on chips,” noted ETRI president Lim Joo-Hwan, “but Mott metals do not generate heat while carrying out the same job of semiconductors.” He projected that utilizing Mott metal insulators in displays and devices in place of silicon-based semiconductors could usher in an era of circuits built with 5nm process technologies (vs. current leading-edge processes of 90-65nm), and open a new market projected at $100 billion/year.