BREAKTHROUGH IN SEMICONDUCTORS - GRAPHENE HAD NO BANDGAP, UNTIL NOW
"We now have an extremely robust graphene semiconductor with 10 times the mobility of silicon, and which also has unique properties not available in silicon." walt deheer
WHO DID IT
"Walter de Heer, Regents' Professor of physics at Georgia Tech, led a team of researchers based in Atlanta, Georgia, and Tianjin, China, to produce a graphene semiconductor that is compatible with conventional microelectronics processing methods—a necessity for any viable alternative to silicon."
They persisted in perfecting the material at Georgia Tech and later in collaboration with colleagues at the Tianjin International Center for Nanoparticles and Nanosystems at Tianjin University in China. De Heer founded the center in 2014 with Lei Ma, the center's director and a co-author of the paper."
GRAPHENE
"In its natural form, graphene is neither a semiconductor nor a metal, but a semimetal. A band gap is a material that can be turned on and off when an electric field is applied to it, which is how all transistors and silicon electronics work. The major question in graphene electronics research was how to switch it on and off so it can work like silicon.
But to make a functional transistor, a semiconducting material must be greatly manipulated, which can damage its properties. To prove that their platform could function as a viable semiconductor, the team needed to measure its electronic properties without damaging it."
HOW THEY DID IT
"They put atoms on the graphene that "donate" electrons to the system—a technique called doping, used to see whether the material was a good conductor. It worked without damaging the material or its properties.
The team's measurements showed that their graphene semiconductor has 10 times greater mobility than silicon. In other words, the electrons move with very low resistance, which, in electronics, translates to faster computing. "It's like driving on a gravel road versus driving on a freeway," de Heer said. "It's more efficient, it doesn't heat up as much, and it allows for higher speeds so that the electrons can move faster.""
RESULT
""A long-standing problem in graphene electronics is that graphene didn't have the right band gap and couldn't switch on and off at the correct ratio," said Ma.
Our technology achieves the band gap, and is a crucial step in realizing graphene-based electronics.""
EPILOGUE
"you're actually using the properties of electrons that are not accessible in silicon,
so this is really a paradigm shift, it's a different way of doing electronics." Walter De Heer
MY2CENTS
1. This is a huge breakthrough, as a collaboration project between USA & China!
2. It would be nice to hope, the commercialization of this technology could come earlier than expected, especially in the context of #edgeai with #ultra #lowpower.
LINKS in comments
https://lnkd.in/d78ggjq9
