Reducing the power consumption of modern electronics faces a fundamental hurdle: while wires can operate on just millivolts, there is a limit to the minimum power at which a transistor will switch, of around half a volt. This mismatch in voltage requirements leads to a huge waste of power. Now, a newly developed piezoelectric transformer that fits neatly on the transistor presents a way of saving power on the wires while ramping up the voltage where it is needed at switches…..
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/59230