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IBM Builds First Graphene Integrated Circuit
AffidavitDonda writes "IBM researchers have built the first integrated circuit (IC) based on a graphene transistor. The circuit, built on a wafer of silicon carbide, consists of field-effect transistors made of graphene. The IC also includes metallic structures, such as on-chip inductors and the transistors' sources and drains. The circuit the team built is a broadband radio-frequency mixer, a fundamental component of radios that processes signals by finding the difference between two high-frequency wavelengths."
I don't think that the article goes into enough detail about just how important this accomplishment is. Frankly, this is our only hope going forward. With so much slow software written in languages like Ruby and JavaScript becoming popular, it will again fall back to the hardware guys to really make things fast again. This will probably be the way they'll do it!
...without efficient static memory, mostly because of the CPU-Memory gap. A faster CPU would require the memory and the bus to keep up at a similar frequency. That's already a problem, and even if that were possible then it would lead to increased power consumption using dynamic RAM and frankly, I think that's the last thing we need.
So faster CPUs will only be a viable alternative when we manage to get something like those memristors they keep talking about. Until then, it's larger caches and higher-frequency DRAM.
The circuit the team built is a broadband radio-frequency mixer, a fundamental component of radios that processes signals by finding the difference between two high-frequency wavelengths.
Did someone paid directly by IEEE write that? "Two high-frequency wavelengths?"
The device is a nonlinear summing element. In other words, it has a transfer function of the form y=Sum(ax^n) for integer values of n from zero to at least 2. A very common example is a diode. But it could also be a transistor in the saturation region, or something more esoteric.
Due to the nonzero second-order transfer function coefficient, provides not only the superposed sum of the two signals at their original frequency, but also at the sum and difference of the two input frequencies. Add filters to throw away the parts you don't want, and you can make a modulator, a frequency upconverter, or a downconverter... all of these are used every day inside things you probably have in your pocket or purse, from cellphones to car stereos, television receivers to communications satellites.
But basically, it does the same thing a diode does... just faster.
I can see the fnords!
Wow! A superhet! Now I can mix 30 ghz down to 300 khz and get some bounce out of what's left of the ionosphere, or is it the ozone layer? I always get those two mixed up. Can hardly wait to hood up the ol' telegraph key and send a message overseas
The only part of the circuit that is "graphene" is the mixer, which is just a transistor. The rest of the circuit (resonators, interconnects) are metal. I do not see how this is an improvement over their previous work with the 100GHz transistor.
Will this allow a different way to signal other logic gates? Is it worthwhile to think about the frequencies that are usually discarded? It seems to me that two or more gates might reinforce each other enough to trigger a third that wasn't directly linked? Could you do something with the extra information?
15TW = 15,000 Nuclear Reactors. (Approx. one accident a month.)
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"Take the juice from one bottle of that Ol' Janx Spirit.
Pour into it one measure of water from the seas of Santraginus V
Allow three cubes of Arcturan Mega-gin to melt into the mixture (it must be properly iced or the benzene is lost).
Allow four litres of Fallian marsh gas to bubble through it (in memory of all those happy Hikers who have died of pleasure in the Marshes of Fallia).
Over the back of a silver spoon float a measure of Qualactin Hypermint extract, redolent of all the heady odours of the dark Qualactin Zones.
Drop in the tooth of an Algolian Suntiger. Watch it dissolve, spreading the fires of the Algolian suns deep into the heart of the drink.
Sprinkle Zamphour.
Add an olive.
Drink...but very carefully."
The article mentions PMMA and resist for use in electron beam lithography, yet PMMA is THE resist used in e-beam.
"Oh boy"