New graphene study could lead to improvements in bluetooth headsets

WASHINGTON - Scientists have successfully built and tested an amplifier made from graphene that could lead to more efficient circuits in electronic chips, such as those used in Bluetooth headsets and toll collection devices in cars.

Graphene, a single-atom thick carbon crystal, was first isolated in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.

The demonstration at UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering of the graphene amplifier with signal processing functions is a major step forward in graphene technology because it is a transition from individual graphene devices to graphene circuits and chips, said Alexander Balandin, who performed the work along with a graduate student and researchers at Rice University.

The triple-mode amplifier based on graphene has advantages over amplifiers built from conventional semiconductors, such as silicon.

The graphene amplifier reveals greater functionality and a faster speed because of graphene’s electrical ambipolarity (current conduction by negative and positive charges).

It can be switched between different modes of operation by a simple change of applied voltage. These characteristics are expected to result in simpler and smaller chips, a faster system response and less power consumption.

The triple-mode amplifier can be charged at anytime during operation in the three modes: positive, negative or both.

By combining these three modes, the researchers demonstrated the amplifier could achieve the modulation necessary for phase shift keying and frequency shift keying, which are widely used in wireless and audio applications.

The findings were reported in the journal ACS Nano. (ANI)