In a transistor that small, the electron would act more like a wave than a single particle. As a wave it would smear out in space, and could even tunnel its way through the transistor without ...

Wave mechanics to the quantum world is analogous ... Quantum tunneling is not a good thing when you’re trying to shrink transistors ever so smaller. Transistors need barriers.

Understanding this odd behavior of electrons was necessary as scientists tried to control how current flowed through the first transistors. So which is it - a particle or a wave? Scientists ...