Nanoplasma-enabled picosecond switches for ultrafast electronics

Joe Gwinn · 2020-05-22T23:27:35+00:00

The article is in Nature Magazine, 26 March 2020, pages 534-539, by Nikoo et al. The device a bit of metal stripline on polyimide film, immersed in air, and generates pulses at 10 MHz, about 12 picoseconds wide, and 50-volt amplitude into 50 ohms. How is this done? It's basically an old-time spark-gap transmitter in miniature. The metal stripline has a very narrow gap where the microplasma forms, and acts as a switch. Expected to work in the terahertz. Initial tests yield . Samizadeh Nikoo, M., Jafari, A., Perera, N. et al. Nanoplasma-enabled (2020). Abstract: The broad applications of ultrawide-band signals and terahertz waves in quantum measurements1,2, imaging and sensing techniques3,4, advanced biological treatments5, and very-high-data-rate communications6 have drawn extensive attention to ultrafast electronics. In such applications, high-speed operation of electronic switches is challenging, especially when high-amplitude output signals are required7. For instance, although field-effect and bipolar junction devices have good controllability and robust performance, their relatively large output capacitance with respect to their ON-state current substantially limits their switching speed8. Here we demonstrate a novel on-chip, all-electronic device based on a nanoscale plasma (nanoplasma) that enables picosecond switching of electric signals with a wide range of power levels. The very high electric field in the small volume of the nanoplasma leads to ultrafast electron transfer, resulting in extremely short time responses. We achieved an ultrafast switching speed, higher than 10 volts per picosecond, which is about two orders of magnitude larger than that of field-effect transistors and more than ten times faster than that of conventional electronic switches. We measured extremely short rise times down to five picoseconds, which were limited by the employed measurement set-up. By integrating these devices with dipole trade-off of 600 milliwatts terahertz...

May 22, 2020 21 Replies

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Joe Gwinn 6 years ago

True enough, but the proposal is to implement the microplasma device using materials proven in such things as thyratrons, and to get rid of the oxygen atmosphere in the arc (or whatever the discharge is).

I do have some references, but it'll take me a while to find them.

In the mean time, a good source is the application notes and datasheets from the current manufacturers, MACOM and Marki Microwave. (Picosecond Labs is gone.)

The search term is "NLTL comb generator" (without the quotes).

. . . .

Found a few I didn't already know.

What's your application?

Joe Gwinn

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Phil Hobbs 6 years ago

None at the moment, but I get asked to do some pretty strange things, so it's good to have stuff in the tool kit. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com

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