Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of graphite carbons, has great potential to make electronic devices, such as radios, computers and telephones, faster and smaller. However, the unique properties of this material also led to difficulties in integrating it into such devices.
In an article published in September in the prestigious journal Nature, a group of researchers from UCLA demonstrates how they managed to overcome some of these obstacles in creating the fastest graphene transistor to date.
With the highest carrier mobility known to date—that is, the speed at which electronic information is transferred through a material—graphene is a promising candidate for high-speed radio frequency electronics. However, normal methods for the production of this material often lead to damage to the quality of the device.
The UCLA team, led by chemistry and biochemistry professor Xiangfeng Duan, developed an innovative manufacturing process to make graphene-based transistors using a self-organizing nanowire as a gate.
Self-organizing gates are a key factor in today's transistors, and they serve as semiconductor devices for amplifying and switching electronic signals. Gates are used to switch between the different states of the transistor, and self-organizing gates were developed to overcome the problems of irregular organization that originate from the miniaturized scale of the electronic components.
"Our new approach overcomes two limitations previously encountered in graphene-based transistors," notes the researcher. "First, in our process, no noticeable defects are created in the graphene during production, so the mobility of the charge carriers remains high. Second, by using a self-assembly approach with a nanowire as a gate, it is possible to overcome assembly difficulties that arose in the previous production of miniature devices while maintaining unprecedented performance."
These advances allowed the team to demonstrate the operation of graphene-based transistors with the highest speed achieved so far - with a frequency switch of up to 300 gigahertz (GHz), a value similar to the values present in the best transistors available today and based on materials with high charge carrier mobility such as gallium arsenide or indium phosphide.
"We are very excited about the approach and our findings, and we are now working hard to increase the speed and scale of production," said one of the research partners. Ultrafast radio frequency electronics could also be used in microwave communications, imaging and radar technology applications.
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I wonder how far it is from this to something practical, and whether the processor companies see this development as a step towards replacing the current processor technology that reaches the size limit.
impressive!!