It's a poorly written article; this key sentence doesn't even make grammatical sense:
Unlike the transistor switching the current at its output (i.e., current source), the trancitor transfers its input to the voltage output (i.e., voltage source), so an inverse relationship with each other.
I looked around but the top hits all seem to lift similarly confusing wording from the abstract of a 2018 paper (https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.05842) .
Can anyone explain in plain English?
Is this simply a voltage-controlled or current-controlled voltage source, where the output voltage is proportional to the input voltage? How much load could it theoretically supply without additional supporting circuitry, before linearity (or whatever is the appropriate response model) breaks down?
It looks like the concept comes only from that paper.
Your understanding in the last paragraph is correct. Whereas both types of transistors are current sources, this hypothetical trancitor would act as a voltage source.
From what I understand of the paper, it is only a theoretical and mathematical basis. One simulation with an ideal trancitor that they do shows that it saves some complexity by using less transistor/trancitors for a certain application and has better power efficiency.
The issue is that it likely would break down at some points, and we would have to also figure out how to create this behavior in the first place.
I think what they are looking for is something like a transistor, except that an EM field changes the capacitance between power handling terminals rather than the resistance. So like a FET changes the resistance between the source and drain, a trancitor would change the capacitance between two terminals. This means it would only be useful for amplification of AC signals since DC would not pass. Whether such a material exists, I don't know. Found this, a "Varicap" seems to be a variable capacitance diode, maybe that could be a basis for a trancitor:
Designing circuits with trancitor's would be similar to any AC circuit design. They wouldn't work for any DC applications though. Whether they would be any better or more efficient in any way, who knows? Is our understanding of physics good enough yet to predict things like this? The wording of the trancitor Wikipedia page is not very grammatical, which makes me wonder if trancitors are some kind of hoax.
Can anyone explain in plain English?
Is this simply a voltage-controlled or current-controlled voltage source, where the output voltage is proportional to the input voltage? How much load could it theoretically supply without additional supporting circuitry, before linearity (or whatever is the appropriate response model) breaks down?