Hitachi Ltd says it has successfully tested a new semiconductor element that applies superconductivity, and says it believes that it will find application in neurocomputers for complex image processing and pattern recognition in the next century. The company’s research lab in Kokubunji, west of Tokyo, has been working in the field for several years and three years ago successfully performed experiments based on the Andreev effect, in which electrons emitted from an electrode reflected on the interface between a superconductor and a semiconductor. In the new work, the new device, which consists of a pointed electrode made of a Niobium superconductor, was developed. Because these elements consume little energy, they can avoid the scattering characteristics caused by the quantum effect at dimensions below 0.1 micron. In future experiments, the Hitachi researchers are hoping to construct a circuit integrating several of the elements, to create a completely new type of processing element that will be two orders of magnitude smaller and an order of magnitude faster than present day circuits.
