In a major breakthrough, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden demonstrated a subharmonic graphene FET mixer at microwave frequencies. The mixer is regarded as a key electronic design element, because it can combine two or more electronic signals into one or two composite output signals. Its potential will ultimately be realised in future applications requiring terahertz frequencies.
The speed of the electrons in silicon has reached its limit, at least that’s the prevailing opinion. However, estimates show that electrons become 100 times quicker with graphene.
Furthering the case for graphene is that it’s a transparent conductor with the ability to combine electrical and optical functionalities. Graphene can switch between hole or electron carrier transport via field effect, which translates into rather significant potential for future RF IC applications.
查尔默斯的研究人员仅使用一个晶体管来建立G-FET次谐波电阻式混合器。结果，它不需要额外的喂食电路，从而创建更紧凑的搅拌机电路。反过来，构造时它占据较小的晶圆区域。
Beyond size reduction, the G-FET offers the potential to reach high frequencies thanks to graphene’s high-speed characteristics, and the fact that a subharmonic mixer only requires half the local-oscillator (LO) frequency of a fundamental mixer. The latter property is particularly attractive at high frequencies (terahertz), due to a lack of sources providing sufficient LO power. Moreover, the G-FET can be integrated with silicon technology (e.g., it’s CMOS-compatible).
石墨烯相关技术的协调开发由欧洲委员会在10年内资助€1000 million plan to develop a FET flagship product. The vision of this ambitious research initiative is to produce a breakthrough for technological innovation and economic exploitation based on graphene and related two-dimensional materials.
石墨烯旗舰项目已经包括130多个研究小组，代表了21个欧洲国家的80个学术和工业合作伙伴。它由一个由九个合作伙伴组成的联盟领导，他们开创了石墨烯研究，创新和网络活动。由瑞典查尔默斯技术大学协调，包括曼彻斯特，兰开斯特大学和英国的剑桥大学，西班牙加泰罗尼亚纳米技术学院，意大利国家研究委员会，欧洲科学基金会，德国的AMO GMBH，以及诺基亚公司。
All of this activity follows trailblazing graphene-related experiments in 2004 by European scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. Their work sparked a scientific explosion, best illustrated by the growth of patent applications related to graphene.
The U.S., Japan, Korea, Singapore, and other countries are investing huge amounts of human resources and capital into graphene research and applications. Korean chipmaker Samsung predicts that the first graphene-based devices will appear in 2014.
