IBM Demonstrates 100GHz Graphene Based Transistors

IBM has been working on graphene transistors for a while now. The new transistor prototypes are made from sheets of carbon just one atom thick that switch on and off at 100 gigahertz, this is 10 times faster than any silicon equivalents.

Electrons are able to travel through graphene much faster than other candidate materials. It is one of the likeliest materials to replace silicon in computer processing.

But researchers had previously made graphene transistors via a time consuming methods such as flaking off graphene sheets from graphite.

The labs at IBM are growing graphene transistors on a silicon carbide wafer, and then they add an insulating layer which prevents short circuits in the transistors. IBM’s  work on this was supported by DARPA.

IBM anticipate being able to scaling up the process so that they could put transistors into high performance imaging devices, radar and communication gadgets within the next few years. Graphene based computer processors might take another decade at least.

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