1. Analogue switches made from boron nitride monolayers for application in 5G and terahertz communication systems
- Author
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Deji Akinwande, Jack C. Lee, Guillaume Ducournau, Xiaohan Wu, Henri Happy, Ruijing Ge, Emiliano Pallecchi, Myungsoo Kim, Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520 (IEMN), Centrale Lille-Institut supérieur de l'électronique et du numérique (ISEN)-Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut-Cambrésis (UVHC)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF), Carbon-IEMN (CARBON-IEMN), Centrale Lille-Institut supérieur de l'électronique et du numérique (ISEN)-Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut-Cambrésis (UVHC)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF)-Centrale Lille-Institut supérieur de l'électronique et du numérique (ISEN)-Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut-Cambrésis (UVHC)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF), Photonique THz - IEMN (PHOTONIQ THz - IEMN), The characterization part of this work was partly supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the phase of the Graphene Flagship GrapheneCore2 785219, by an ANR TERASONIC grant (17-CE24) and by the CPER Photonics for Society, the Hauts-de-France regional council and the TERIL-WAVES project (I-Site ULNE and MEL)., This work was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research grant N00014-20-1-2104, the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant no. 1809017 and Engineering Research Center Cooperative Agreement no. EEC-1160494. D.A. acknowledges the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) through the Army Research Office Award no. W911NF-16-1-0277. The fabrication was partly done at the Texas Nanofabrication Facility supported by NSF grant NNCI-1542159., PCMP CHOP, Renatech Network, ANR-17-CE24-0044,TERASONIC,Transmissions TERAhertz combinant électronique état SOlide et photoNIQue(2017), European Project: 785219,H2020,GrapheneCore2(2018), Carbon - IEMN (CARBON - IEMN), and Photonique THz - IEMN (PHOTONIQUE THz - IEMN)
- Subjects
Materials science ,Band gap ,Terahertz radiation ,02 engineering and technology ,Dielectric ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,law.invention ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,[SPI]Engineering Sciences [physics] ,law ,Insertion loss ,Figure of merit ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Instrumentation ,business.industry ,Transistor ,Heterojunction ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,0104 chemical sciences ,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials ,chemistry ,Boron nitride ,Optoelectronics ,0210 nano-technology ,business - Abstract
Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has a large bandgap, high phonon energies and an atomically smooth surface absent of dangling bonds. As a result, it has been widely used as a dielectric to investigate electron physics in two-dimensional heterostructures and as a dielectric in the fabrication of two-dimensional transistors and optoelectronic devices. Here we show that hBN can be used to create analogue switches for applications in communication systems across radio, 5G and terahertz frequencies. Our approach relies on the non-volatile resistive switching capabilities of atomically thin hBN. The switches are composed of monolayer hBN sandwiched between two gold electrodes and exhibit a cutoff-frequency figure of merit of around 129 THz with a low insertion loss (≤0.5 dB) and high isolation (≥10 dB) from 0.1 to 200 GHz, as well as a high power handling (around 20 dBm) and nanosecond switching speeds, metrics that are superior to those of existing solid-state switches. Furthermore, the switches are 50 times more efficient than other non-volatile switches in terms of a d.c. energy-consumption metric, which is an important consideration for ubiquitous mobile systems. We also illustrate the potential of the hBN switches in a communication system with an 8.5 Gbit s–1 data transmission rate at 100 GHz with a low bit error rate under 10−10. Resistive switching in atomically thin sheets of hexagonal boron nitride can be used to create analogue switches for applications in communication systems across radio, 5G and terahertz frequencies.
- Published
- 2020