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Monday, April 4, 2011

 Graphene transistors have a nanoscale cooling effect

April 4, 2011

Graphene Contact

An atomic force microscope tip scans the surface of a graphene-metal contact to measure temperature (credit: Alex Jerez, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology)

Researchers at the University of Illinois have found that graphene transistors have a nanoscale cooling effect that reduces their temperature.

The Illinois team used an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip as a temperature probe to make the first nanometer-scale temperature measurements of a working graphene transistor.

They found that thermoelectric cooling effects can be stronger at graphene contacts than resistive heating, actually lowering the temperature of the transistor. This self-cooling effect means that graphene-based electronics (built using carbon sheets one atom thick) could require little or no cooling, providing greater energy efficiency and increasing graphene’s attractiveness as a silicon replacement.

This also means that future computer chips made from graphene could be faster than silicon chips and operate at lower power.

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Publisher and/or Author and/or Managing Editor:__Andres Agostini ─ @Futuretronium at Twitter! Futuretronium Book at http://3.ly/rECc