Bilayer Graphene could guide in novel tunnel transistor

Scientists at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have projected a novel tunnel transistor that is based on bilayer graphene technology. The tunnel transistor could diminish power consumption and allows a considerable boost in the clock speed of the processors. In their recreations, the researchers of the MIPT estimated that the speed of the clock can be augmented by as much as dual orders of magnitude.

As stated by Dmitry Svintsov of MIPT, “Our aim is not mainly to save electricity as we have enough of electrical energy, but at a reduced power supply the electronic elements heat up less, and this implies that they can function at a better clock speed – not one gigahertz, but ten for instance, or in fact one hundred.”

Tunneling transistors have grown into a highly attractive alternative to the traditional transistors that function on the principle of electronic barriers that obstruct electrons from circulating through it. The issue with conventional transistors has been that as the chips continuously shrink, the barriers have become thinner, and the electrons just transmit right through. The tunnel transistor flicks the system on its head, delivering a kind of feeling that is you cannot win over them then it is better to join them. In such a solution the electrons will pass through the barrier.

The functionality of the tunnel transistors is always carried by maintaining the energy barrier high rather than lowering or raising it to regulate the movement of current. With the benefit of the quantum effect, the device switches off and on by transforming the likelihood that the electrons on one part of the barrier will appear on the other side. In this research, the researchers of MIPT established a computer model of just similar to a tunnel transistor made-up from bilayer graphene. They used bilayer graphene because its conduction and valence bands convert into the shape of a hat as contrasting to semiconductors wherein the bands convert into a parabolic shape.

The modeling revealed that the amount of electrons that can conquer spaces close to the boundaries of the Mexican hat shifts towards the uncountable. When a little amount of voltage is supplied to the transistor’s gate, then a massive amount of electrons at the edges instigate to the tunnel at the same point in time. As a result, there is an intense change in current, despite the fact that only a small amount of voltage has been applied. Such great performance at low voltage supply results in reduced power consumption.

The subsequent step in the research will be the creation of the FET prototype, magnitude of the FET characteristics and its evaluation with the modeling.

Conclusion – Svinstov confirms that a method to increasing graphene bilayer precisely on boron nitride substrates would require being utilized and that the sub-10-nanonmeter spaces between metal gates would require being fabricated. Both these types of research programs have already been executed in labs is what is confirmed by Svinstov.