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At the IHP-Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics in Germany and the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers have been busy collaborating on the most-cutting-edge silicon-containing device ever released. The silicon-germanium transistor has been operated at 798 gigahertz fMAX, greatly surpassing the prior record for these transistors, held at 200 GHz. Such record-breaking operating speeds were actuated at frigid temperatures.
The lead professor from the experiment at Georgia Tech, John D. Cressler, stated that “the transistor we tested was a conservative design and the results indicate that there is significant potential to achieve similar speeds at room temperature – which would enable potentially world changing progress in high-data-rate wireless and wired communications, as well as signal processing, imaging, sensing, and radar applications.” Cressler believes that by achieving such tremendous speeds with a silicon-germanium transistor, the team could break the terahertz barrier. How the silicon-germanium transistor works in such low temperatures indicates the multipurpose electronic application of these products in places like outer space.
The German research facility, IHP, was funded by the German government to produce a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) constructed from a nanoscale SiGe alloy embedded material within a silicon transistor. When this innovation was complete, the team at Georgia Tech tested and analyzed the transistor to ensure the design’s accuracy.
The record-breaking low temperatures that the transistor was operated at demonstrates progress towards potentially increasing the speed at room temperature. In the engineering fields, professionals can implement the use of these applications when creating semiconductors and other Silicon containing technological products.
With the silicon-germanium (SiGe) combination, amounts of germanium are placed into silicon wafers at the atomic scale when manufacturing takes place. This innovation is used in IHP Microelectronics 800-GHz transistor. The combination is low-cost, small in size, easy to manufacture, and can be readily integrated into various applications.
Cressler’s team tested the 800-GHz transistor at 452º below zero. The transistor’s voltage was 1.7 V, a reasonable amount able to cover all intended actions. The transistor was created by using IHP’s 130-nanometer BiCMOS process, and is available from IHP as a multiproject wafer foundry service. The transistor operated at 417 GHz, performing extremely fast in comparison to many other types of transistors.
Story via Phys.org
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