Sistema de blogs Diarium
Universidad de Salamanca
Tomás González
Áea de Electrónica - Departamento de Física Aplicada
 
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TEC2013-41640-R

NANOEF

 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación – Dirección General de Investigación (2014-2017)

Narrow and wide bandgap nanoelectronics for improved efficiency in RF and THz applications

This project addresses the transversal field of micro- and nanoelectronics, one of the Key Enabling Technologies (KETs or Tecnologías Facilitadoras) as transversal research themes that may impact different challenges (or Retos) by trying to unblock two of the main bottlenecks for the sustainable development of the semiconductor industry and the related ICT industrial sectors: i) the decrease of power consumption of electronic circuits and ii) the exploitation of a larger span of frequencies within the electromagnetic spectrum. Sustainable development is today a societal challenge since excessive energy consumption is becoming a concern. In particular, the consumption of electronic devices, not only in active mode but also in standby mode, will have a more and more important impact in the future years. The reduction of power consumption of digital and RF circuits by means of the non-conventional architectures would then be necessary. The maturity of the technology of III V semiconductors devices allows us to explore the possibility to use both classical (Schottky diodes and heterojunction transistors, HEMTs), and novel structures (self-switching diodes, SSDs and impact-ionization MOSFETs, I-MOSFET) to address the global objective of this project which is to improve the energy efficiency of the electronic circuits for ultra-low power and ultra-high frequency applications.

 Important modelling and design efforts are scheduled in this project, mainly using advanced MC simulations, initially for the optimization of discrete device performances and afterwards at system level. With this support, the fabrication of optimized GaN SSDs and I-MOSFETs will then be realized at IEMN (Lille). The efficiency of the design process will also be improved on the basis of intense physical, DC, RF and terahertz (THz) characterization tasks performed at USAL and the laboratories of IEMN and IES (Montpellier). The feedback loop between fabrication, characterization and modelling tasks will be the engine for the rapid progress of the research tasks. We will also take advantage of the effort dedicated by the foreign researchers that have joined this project and the previous collaborations already established with them, which guarantee the fast and effective transfer of information.

The results of this project, by demonstrating the feasibility of compact size THz detectors and continuous wave tunable submillimeter sources, will establish the basis of THz applications extending the functionalities of present systems based on photonic and electronic devices. This approach, together with our research on I MOSFETs for ultra-low power digital circuits, will establish the basis of future low power consumption electronics for mobile smart systems with a strong impact not only in sustainability but also with important economic and societal implications in many different aspects and economic sectors.

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