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diamond diode

22.05.2006

British scientists have made a transistor from amorphous carbon.

Semiconductors based on an amorphous substance, such as amorphous silicon, promise to revolutionize electronics by making huge, cheap, flat-panel monitors. After all, such a microcircuit does not need to be placed on a piece of a single crystal, which means that its size is practically unlimited. Unfortunately, electrons move too slowly through a grid of disordered atoms, and the gigahertz speeds required for good displays are beyond their strength.

However, as it should be, in addition to the direct path, a roundabout one also leads to the cherished goal. It's called a "resonant tunnel diode". Such a microcircuit consists of nanometer-thick layers in which quantum phenomena begin to play an important role. For example, electrons can move between layers due to the tunnel effect. In a three-layer structure, such movements can be controlled by changing the composition and thickness of the layers and obtain regions with negative resistance.

This effect has been repeatedly observed in crystalline microcircuits based on gallium arsenide, and physicists from the University of Surrey (Great Britain) under the guidance of Professor Ravi Silva managed to achieve it on an amorphous structure. In their experiments, they did not use silicon, but diamond-like films of carbon. Until recently, this material was exotic, but now scientists in many laboratories have learned how to work with it.

Moreover, diamond-like coatings can be deposited at room temperature on flexible and cheap plastic substrates. By themselves, the layers of such a coating are distinguished by chemical and mechanical resistance.

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Electronic analogue of a cat's whiskers 08.02.2014

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) have teamed up with researchers at the University of California to create electronic whiskers similar to rats and cats.

The new whiskers, called E-Whiskers, can "feel" a pressure of 1 Pa (such pressure, for example, is exerted by a bill lying on a table surface).

Electronic whiskers are structurally tactile sensors created from flexible fibers coated with carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles. Depending on the specific task, the whiskers with a flexible electrically conductive substrate can be applied to almost any surface. E-Whiskers can change their electrical resistance depending on the pressure. These changes in resistance are measured in the future.

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