The device is a communications switch that increases sustainability and offers twice the performance of existing devices.
UAB researchers have developed a communications switch that operates at extremely high frequencies while consuming less power than conventional technologies. The innovation is ideal for upcoming 6G communications systems, which will reduce energy usage and therefore improve sustainability. The results of their research were recently published in Nature Electronics.
Switches are essential elements for controlling signals in electronic communication devices. The function of a switch is to either pass (on state) or block (off state) electrical signals. The fastest elements currently used to perform this function are silicon-based (so-called RF silicon-on-insulator MOSFET switches) and operate using signals with frequencies of tens of gigahertz (GHz).
However, they are volatile and require a constant power source to stay on. To improve current communications systems and meet the demands for ever-increasingly faster communications due to the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual reality, the signals at which these elements can operate must be increased in frequency, and their performance must be improved.
Breakthrough in Switch Technology
An international collaboration of researchers from the UAB School of Telecommunications and Systems Engineering has developed, for the first time, a switch that operates in a frequency range of up to 120 GHz, twice the operating frequency of current silicon-based devices, and does not require the application of a constant voltage.
The new switch uses a non-volatile material called hBN (hexagonal boron nitride) and allows the on/off state of the switch to be activated by applying a voltage pulse instead of a constant signal, thus achievable energy savings are enormous.
“Our research team from the Department of Telecommunications and Systems Engineering at UAB was involved in the design of the device and its experimental characterization in the laboratory,” explains researcher Jordi Verdú. “For the first time, we were able to demonstrate the operation of a switch based on the non-volatile material hBN in the frequency range up to 120 GHz. This shows the possibility of using this technology for new 6G mass communication systems, which will require a great many of these elements. For Verdú, this is “a very important contribution towards a much more sustainable technology, not only in terms of device performance, but also in terms of energy consumption.”
These devices work by exploiting a property of memristance, where the electrical resistance of a material changes when a voltage is applied. Until now, very fast switches have been experimentally developed from memristors (devices with memristance) made of a two-dimensional network of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) bonded to form a surface. With this arrangement, the device could reach frequencies up to 480 GHz, but only for 30 cycles, making it impractical. The new proposal uses the same material, but arranged layer-by-layer (12-18 layers in total), operates at 260 GHz, and has a high enough stability (about 2000 cycles) to be implemented in electronic devices.
Reference: “Memristive circuits based on multilayer hexagonal boron nitride for millimeter-wave radio frequency applications” by Sebastian Pazos, Yaqing Shen, Haoran Zhang, Jordi Verdú, Andrés Fontana, Wenwen Zheng, Yue Yuan, Osamah Alharbi, Yue Ping, Eloi Guerrero, Lluís Acosta, Pedro de Paco, Dimitra Saikoziou, Atif Shamim, Deji Akinwande, Mario Lanza, July 1, 2024 Nature Electronics.
DOI: 10.1038/s41928-024-01192-2
The study was recently published in the journal Nature ElectronicsThe project is coordinated by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Saudi ArabiaThe study involved researchers Jordi Verdú, Eloi Guerrero, Lluís Acosta and Pedro de Paco from the UAB Department of Telecommunications and Systems Engineering, as well as researchers from the University of Texas at Austin (USA), Tyndall National Laboratory and University College Cork (all in Ireland).
