Electronics - Page 41

IBM Research has fabricated new 100-Ghz Graphene RF-transistors on 2" wafers. IBM says that the transistors, which operate at room temperature are the fastest available expect the fastest GaAs transistors, and are more than twice faster than silicon transistors with the same gate length (40Ghz). IBM's next aim is to increase the speed of the Graphene transistor to 1 Thz.

The Graphene RF transistors were created for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency under its Carbon Electronics for RF Applications (CERA) program. The transistors were fabricated at the wafer scale using epitaxially grown graphene processing techniques that are compatible with those used to fabricate silicon transistors.

Penn State researchers say that have developed a method of fabricating pure sheets of Graphene on 100 millimeter wafers. They are using silicon sublimation which thermally removes silicon from silicon carbide wafers leaving behind pure graphene. They say that this process can be used to make Graphene chips that are 100 to 1000 times faster than silicon, and also enable other applications such as sensors, displays, solar cells and more.

Scientists from the HRL Laboratories (in California) announced recently they have fabricated and demonstrated graphene-on-silicon field effect transistors (FETs) at full wafer scale—a revolutionary advancement in electronics that will enable unprecedented capabilities in high-bandwidth communications, imaging and radar systems.

The work is part of the Carbon Electronics for RF Applications, or CERA program, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and under the management of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center. HRL has been collaborating with a group of universities, commercial companies and the Naval Research Laboratory on the program.

European researchers discovered that stretching graphene can make it a good semiconductor. Normally, there is a lack of a 'gap' Graphene's energy spectrum. This gap is present in silicon and other materials used by the semiconductor industry. Without the gap, Graphene tends to 'leak' energy when used as a transistor.

The researchers discovered that when you stretch graphene, the semiconducting gap opens.

NuPGA is a new startup (founded by Zvi Or-Bach), working on a carbon-based memory process. They want to use Graphene as the reprogrammable memory element inside vias on otherwise conventional FPGAs. The 'graphene-memories' can be reprogrammed an indefinite number of times - and they are insensitive to temperature changes and radiation.

Rice University researchers developed a bulk chemical process that converted nanotubes into nanoribbons, providing the raw material needed to perfect a technique based on using voltage pulses to make or break connections--essentially turning the carbon ribbons into reprogrammable switches. NuPGA plans to harness these reprogrammable switches in FPGAs by inserting graphite into vias between chip layers, allowing them to be reconfigured on-the-fly.

There's an interesting interview with Dr. Welser, the Director of the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI). The NRI was established in 2004 in order to develop post-silicon CMOS computing technologies, which will be needed by 2020 if not earlier.

Here are the Graphene related questions: