Objective
This project presents the concept of a novel, submicron size electron device, and aims at investigating its potential application in high-speed, very low-power Analog-to-Digital (A/D) conversion with resolutions as high as 10 bits and beyond.
The operational concept of the device is based on the phenomenon of ballistic transport in Electron Waveguides (EWs). The device consists of two EWs coupled in parallel and is called a Double Electron Waveguide (DEW). The conductance output G(Vg) of a DEW, where Vg is a gate voltage, is expected to be a regular, square wave. Such an output can conceivably be used to generate a direct, binary A/D conversion, requiring only N DEW devices for N-bit conversion. Since transport is ballistic, the power consumption of a DEW is very small, of the order of a few µWs.
This is a two-phase project. The first phase is mostly geared to experimentally testing the basic device concept of a DEW, measuring its low-frequency G(Vg) and Schottky gate capacitance Cg, and finally assessing the feasibility and risk aspects for potential industrial use. DEWs of the first phase will be fabricated from AIGaAs/GaAs heterostructures since this is the most mature material in terms of growth, characterisation, and processing. Such DEWs are designated GDEWs. Given the first phase is a success, the second phase objective is to achieve a DEW device capable of high-speed (tens of GS/s), A/D conversion with at least 5 bits of resolution, and operating at temperatures ( 77K. GDEWs are not expected to operate at temperatures much higher than the liquid helium temperature of 4.2K. For this reason, DEWs of the second phase must be fabricated from new material systems such as InAIS/InSb with electronic properties that can sustain ballistic transport at high temperatures. At this point of time sufficient experimental information on these heterostructures or on the problems encountered in the processing of devices from them is not yet available. Nevertheless, we believe that InSb is a viable material to supersede GaAs as far as DEWs are concerned. DEWs so fabricated are named ADEWs.
Successful fabrication of ADEWs with the requisite characteristics will allow their use in Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) for direct, single-stage conversion with 5 bits resolution at temperatures ( 77K. Using known multistage concepts, the resolution can be upgraded to reach values as high as 10 bits and beyond. The problem of interfacing with conventional microelectronics can be expected to be resolved with the advent of ICs operating at lower and lower voltages. The availability of such ADCs would be of immense use to the European industry enterprises with a combined market for these sectors worth tens of billions of ECUs and is growing fast.
A project Steering Committee, consisting of the partners and the industrial advisors (Thomson-CSF and Alcatel Té1écom), will meet regularly to review progress against the key objectives and may propose changes in the project programme to ensure industrial relevance.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry noble gases
- natural sciences physical sciences electromagnetism and electronics microelectronics
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Coordinator
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette
France
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