Skip to main content
Vai all'homepage della Commissione europea (si apre in una nuova finestra)
italiano it
CORDIS - Risultati della ricerca dell’UE
CORDIS
Contenuto archiviato il 2024-05-14

Ballistic double electron waveguide for potential use in analogue-to-digital conversion

Obiettivo

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.

Campo scientifico (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP. Cfr.: Il Vocabolario Scientifico Europeo.

È necessario effettuare l’accesso o registrarsi per utilizzare questa funzione

Programma(i)

Programmi di finanziamento pluriennali che definiscono le priorità dell’UE in materia di ricerca e innovazione.

Argomento(i)

Gli inviti a presentare proposte sono suddivisi per argomenti. Un argomento definisce un’area o un tema specifico per il quale i candidati possono presentare proposte. La descrizione di un argomento comprende il suo ambito specifico e l’impatto previsto del progetto finanziato.

Invito a presentare proposte

Procedura per invitare i candidati a presentare proposte di progetti, con l’obiettivo di ricevere finanziamenti dall’UE.

Dati non disponibili

Meccanismo di finanziamento

Meccanismo di finanziamento (o «Tipo di azione») all’interno di un programma con caratteristiche comuni. Specifica: l’ambito di ciò che viene finanziato; il tasso di rimborso; i criteri di valutazione specifici per qualificarsi per il finanziamento; l’uso di forme semplificate di costi come gli importi forfettari.

ACM - Preparatory, accompanying and support measures

Coordinatore

Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA)
Contributo UE
Nessun dato
Indirizzo
Centre d'Études de Saclay
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette
Francia

Mostra sulla mappa

Costo totale

I costi totali sostenuti dall’organizzazione per partecipare al progetto, compresi i costi diretti e indiretti. Questo importo è un sottoinsieme del bilancio complessivo del progetto.

Nessun dato
Il mio fascicolo 0 0