It could be a better semiconductor than silicon
Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms arrayed in a honeycomb pattern, just a single atom thick. It could be a better semiconductor than silicon – if we could fashion it into ribbons 20 to 50 atoms wide. Could DNA help?
DNA is the blueprint for life. Could it also become the template for making a new generation of computer chips based not on silicon, but on an experimental material known as graphene?
That’s the theory behind a process that Stanford chemical engineering professor Zhenan Bao reveals in Nature Communications.
Bao and her co-authors, former post-doctoral fellows Anatoliy Sokolov and Fung Ling Yap, hope to solve a problem clouding the future of electronics: consumers expect silicon chips to continue getting smaller, faster and cheaper, but engineers fear that this virtuous cycle could grind to a halt.
Why has to do with how silicon chips work.
Everything starts with the notion of the semiconductor, a type of material that can be induced to either conduct or stop the flow of electricity. Silicon has long been the most popular semiconductor material used to make chips.
The basic working unit on a chip is the transistor. Transistors are tiny gates that switch electricity on or off, creating the zeroes and ones that run software.
To build more powerful chips, designers have done two things at the same time: they’ve shrunk transistors in size and also swung those gates open and shut faster and faster.
The net result of these actions has been to concentrate more electricity in a diminishing space. So far that has produced small, faster, cheaper chips. But at a certain point, heat and other forms of interference could disrupt the inner workings of silicon chips.
“We need a material that will let us build smaller transistors that operate faster using less power,” Bao said.
Graphene has the physical and electrical properties to become a next-generation semiconductor material – if researchers can figure out how to mass-produce it.
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Visually it resembles chicken wire. Electrically this lattice of carbon atoms is an extremely efficient conductor.
Bao and other researchers believe that ribbons of graphene, laid side-by-side, could create semiconductor circuits. Given the material’s tiny dimensions and favorable electrical properties, graphene nano ribbons could create very fast chips that run on very low power, she said.
“However, as one might imagine, making something that is only one atom thick and 20 to 50 atoms wide is a significant challenge,” said co-author Sokolov.
To handle this challenge, the Stanford team came up with the idea of using DNA as an assembly mechanism.
Physically, DNA strands are long and thin, and exist in roughly the same dimensions as the graphene ribbons that researchers wanted to assemble.
Chemically, DNA molecules contain carbon atoms, the material that forms graphene.
The real trick is how Bao and her team put DNA’s physical and chemical properties to work.
The researchers started with a tiny platter of silicon to provide a support (substrate) for their experimental transistor. They dipped the silicon platter into a solution of DNA derived from bacteria and used a known technique to comb the DNA strands into relatively straight lines.
Next, the DNA on the platter was exposed to a copper salt solution. The chemical properties of the solution allowed the copper ions to be absorbed into the DNA.
Next the platter was heated and bathed in methane gas, which contains carbon atoms. Once again chemical forces came into play to aid in the assembly process. The heat sparked a chemical reaction that freed some of the carbon atoms in the DNA and methane. These free carbon atoms quickly joined together to form stable honeycombs of graphene.
“The loose carbon atoms stayed close to where they broke free from the DNA strands, and so they formed ribbons that followed the structure of the DNA,” Yap said.
So part one of the invention involved using DNA to assemble ribbons of carbon. But the researchers also wanted to show that these carbon ribbons could perform electronic tasks. So they made transistors on the ribbons.
“We demonstrated for the first time that you can use DNA to grow narrow ribbons and then make working transistors,” Sokolov said.
The Latest Bing News on:
Graphene transistor
- Georgia Tech group create world’s first graphene-based semiconductoron April 26, 2024 at 10:13 am
A group of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) have created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from graphene, a development that could lead to advanced ...
- Mechanical strain control of quantum transport in graphene enables new class of nanoelectronic deviceson April 23, 2024 at 5:00 pm
a) Sample holder geometry showing the bending of a Si substrate hosting a suspended graphene transistor. b) Top-view diagram of the graphene transistor showing the source, channel, and drain regions.
- Graphene’s Light-Speed Electrons Promise Revolution in Nanoscale Transistorson April 18, 2024 at 3:24 pm
Researchers have shown that double-layer graphene can function both as a superconductor and an insulator, a property that could revolutionize transistor technology. This dual functionality allows for ...
- Experiments with Bilayer Graphene Reveal ‘Massless’ Movement of Electrons, Similar to Lighton April 18, 2024 at 5:09 am
New experiments confirm that electrons travel through naturally occurring bilayer graphene much like light, without mass.
- Quantum electronics: Charge travels like light in bilayer grapheneon April 16, 2024 at 9:08 am
An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has demonstrated experimentally that electrons in naturally occurring double-layer graphene move like particles without any mass, in ...
- Charge travels like light in bilayer grapheneon April 15, 2024 at 5:00 pm
This unique feature has made scientists dream of using graphene for much faster and more energy-efficient transistors. The challenge has been that to make a transistor, the material needs to be ...
- Paragraf provides access to its graphene technology via new online storeon April 15, 2024 at 4:00 am
Paragraf, the UK-based mass producer of graphene electronics using transfer-free graphene grown with conventional semiconductor processes, has opened a new online store to enable global access to its ...
- Wafer-thin, stretchy and strong as steel: could ‘miracle’ material graphene finally transform our world?on April 13, 2024 at 9:26 am
The fact that graphene devices are likely to consume less energy than current devices is also important, he added. “The silicon age is coming to an end. We have reached the limit to the number of ...
- Unlocking exotic physics: Exploring graphene's topological bands in super-moiré structureson April 3, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Graphene is a 2D sheet of carbon atoms arranged ... involved with a company called FLEET who are developing topological transistors and hope that their work with topological flat bands can help ...
- From strength to strengthon March 31, 2024 at 9:56 am
With exciting new results appearing every week, graphene is one of the hottest topics in physics, and may also form the basis of a new approach to electronics a decade from now. You have full ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Graphene transistor
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Graphene transistor” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
The Latest Bing News on:
Using DNA to assemble ribbons of carbon
- Vast DNA tree of life for plants revealed by global science team using 1.8 billion letters of genetic codeon April 24, 2024 at 8:00 am
A new paper published today (April 24) in the journal Nature by an international team of 279 scientists led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew presents the most up-to-date understanding of the ...
- 5 New Ways of Making Good Use of Carbon Wasteon April 22, 2024 at 12:44 pm
From filling carbon dioxide into tanks packed with algae to capturing CO2 and creating limestone and chalk for construction, these new innovations will be crucial in our fight against climate change ...
- What Is Carbon? Life's Most Crucial Element, Explainedon April 21, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Its geometry lets it form crystals, and its charge lets it make many ... Carbon is found in cellulose and lignin, the structural polymers of plants, as well as the DNA they use to live, grow ...
- What Does DNA Stand For, and How Does It Work?on April 21, 2024 at 5:00 am
DNA is the molecular basis of heredity, the inherited traits that pass between generations in a person's family tree. Embodied in the sequence of base pairs, DNA carries information between ...
- These startups are using traces of DNA to spy on nature for good—and profiton April 14, 2024 at 5:00 pm
The company also charges up to $450 for a “HoneyDNA” kit, which uses environmental DNA ... BeZero Carbon, an agency that rates the quality of carbon credits, began testing the use of eDNA ...
- DNA and Geneson October 19, 2023 at 4:52 pm
Genes control everything from hair color to blood sugar by telling cells which proteins to make, how much ... Popularized by television and cinema, using DNA to match blood, hair or saliva ...
- DNA Nanotechnology: Building Blocks of the Futureon March 26, 2023 at 12:45 pm
precise nanostructures using DNA as a building material. It involves designing and synthesizing DNA molecules with specific sequences that can self-assemble into desired shapes and patterns. At ...
- Using DNA to Solve Cold Cases Just Got a Lot Easier, Thanks to This Mathon November 4, 2022 at 3:10 pm
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below." A new method for solving forensic genetic puzzles is ten times faster than the current method ...
- Using one-step DNA assembly to create designer DNAon September 6, 2020 at 12:34 am
As the synthetic biology market continues to grow, there is increasing demand for longer length, error-free DNA of over 5,000 bp in length, sometimes much longer. These sequences of bespoke DNA ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Using DNA to assemble ribbons of carbon
[google_news title=”” keyword=”using DNA to assemble ribbons of carbon” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]