Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Step Toward Digital Graphene Transistors
Graphene is composed of carbon atoms arranged in tightly bound hexagons just one atom thick.
Purdue University researchers have created a type of graphene inverter, a key building block of digital transistors.
The graphene inverters work at room temperature and have a gain larger than one, which enables transistors to amplify signals and control its switching from 0 to 1. Graphene has been touted as a potential replacement for silicon, possibly leading to ultrafast devices with simplified circuits that might be less expensive to manufacture, until it was discovered that it has no band gap, a trait needed to switch on and off. Thus, the development of graphene transistors has been limited to specialized applications, such as amplifiers for cell phones and military systems, but the new inverters could lead to broader digital applications that include computers and consumer electronics.
The team has developed electrostatic doping, which enables graphene inverters to mimic the characteristics of silicon inverters. The next step is to integrate the prototype into a working graphene circuit for digital applications.
From Purdue University News
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