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    Category Technology/Electronics

    Common Glass used to Optimize Graphene’s Electronic Properties

    February 13, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Left: This is a schematic of a graphene field-effect-transistor used in this study. The device consists of a solar cell containing graphene stacked on top of a high-performance copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) semiconductor, which in turn is stacked on an industrial substrate (either soda-lime glass, SLG, or sodium-free borosilicate glass, BSG). The research revealed that the SLG substrate serves as a source of sodium doping, and improved device performance in a way not seen in the sodium-free substrate. Right: A scanning electron micrograph of the device as seen from above, with the white scale bar measuring 10 microns, and a transmission electron micrograph inset of the CIGS/graphene interface where the white scale bar measures 100 nanometers. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

    Left: This is a schematic of a graphene field-effect-transistor used in this study. The device consists of a solar cell containing graphene stacked on top of a high-performance copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) semiconductor, which in turn is stacked on an industrial substrate (either soda-lime glass, SLG, or sodium-free borosilicate glass, BSG). The research revealed that the SLG substrate serves as a source of sodium doping, and improved device performance in a way not seen in the sodium-free substrate. Right: A scanning electron micrograph of the device as seen from above, with the white scale bar measuring 10 microns, and a transmission electron micrograph inset of the CIGS/graphene interface where the white scale bar measures 100 nanometers...

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    Silicon Chip with Integrated Laser: Light from a Nanowire: Nanolaser for information technology

    February 12, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Gallium-arsenide nanowires are on a silicon surface. Credit: Thomas Stettner/Philipp Zimmermann / TUM

    Gallium-arsenide nanowires are on a silicon surface. Credit: Thomas Stettner/Philipp Zimmermann / TUM

    Physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a nanolaser, a thousand times thinner than a human hair. Thanks to an ingenious process, the nanowire lasers grow right on a silicon chip, making it possible to produce high-performance photonic components cost-effectively. This will pave the way for fast and efficient data processing with light in the future. Ever smaller, ever faster, ever cheaper – since the start of the computer age the performance of processors has doubled on average every 18 months. 50 years ago already, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore prognosticated this astonishing growth in performance. And Moore’s law seems to hold true to this day.

    But the mi...

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    Terahertz Wireless Tech Could Bring Fiber-Optic Speeds out of a Fiber

    February 11, 2016, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Physics

    Scientists have developed a terahertz (THz) transmitter capable of signal transmission at a per-channel data rate of >10 Gb/s over multiple channels at ~300 GHz. The aggregate multi-channel data rate exceeds 100 gigabits per second. The transmitter was implemented as a silicon CMOS integrated circuit, which would have a great advantage for commercialization and consumer use.

    This technology could open a new frontier in wireless communication with data rates 10X higher than current technology allows. The THz band is a new, vast frequency resource not currently used for wireless communications. Its frequencies are even higher than those used by the mm-wave wireless local area network (57 GHz to 66 GHz), and bandwidths are much wider...

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    New Thin Film Transistor may lead to Flexible Devices

    February 10, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    UAlberta electrical engineering PhD student Gem Shoute (second from right) is the lead author on a research paper demonstrating a powerful new flexible transistor. The team: electrical engineering professor Doug Barlage, Triranta Muneshwar, Shoute and materials engineering professor Ken Cadien, published its work in Nature Communications. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Alberta

    UAlberta electrical engineering PhD student Gem Shoute (second from right) is the lead author on a research paper demonstrating a powerful new flexible transistor. The team: electrical engineering professor Doug Barlage, Triranta Muneshwar, Shoute and materials engineering professor Ken Cadien, published its work in Nature Communications. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Alberta

    Engineering first with applications in displays to medical imaging and renewable energy production.The transistor is easily scaled and has power-handling capabilities at least 10X greater than commercially produced thin film transistors...

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