EAGER: Exploring Graphene Mechanical Switch for Future RF ICs

EAGER：探索未来射频 IC 的石墨烯机械开关

• 批准号: 2302688
• 负责人: Albert Wang
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: University of California-Riverside
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2302688&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Exploring; Graphene; Mechanical; Switch

Project Title:EAGER: Exploring Graphene Mechanical Switch for Future RF ICs(Proposal #: 2302688; PI: Albert Wang)Proliferation of wireless communications, enabled by semiconductor radio-frequency integrated circuits, has forever changed our life. Today, it is hardly to imagine a life without smartphone and wireless internet. The current pursuit for an “always connected” world in the emerging era of internet of everything demands for new generation (Next-G) wireless technologies, beyond the fifth generation (5G), which depends upon advanced radio-frequency integrated circuit chips to support higher frequencies, broader bandwidth, and more spectrum bands in order to achieve higher data rates, lower power consumption and shorter system latency. Imagine hundreds of users in the same area utilizing smartphones at the same time, how to avoid crosstalk in between? This is where a radio-frequency switch device will play a critical role in modern wireless communications, especially for Next-G wireless system. Unfortunately, the traditional semiconductor transistor based radio-frequency switch could not support Next-G wireless communications due to its inherent technical problems, such as poor crosstalk immunity and high signal loss, which will be addressed by the proposed research. This project will explore a disruptively new radio-frequency switch technology that utilizes a novel graphene-based microelectromechanical system switch to be designed and heterogeneous integrated into semiconductor integrated circuit platform to realize a new breed of switch devices featuring ultrahigh crosstalk isolation, ultralow signal propagation loss, ultrafast switching speed to support Next-G wireless communications. This two-year EAGER proposal will explore a revolutionarily new graphene-based mechanical switch concept to address the fundamental technical challenges inherent to semiconductor field-effect transistor (FET) based radio-frequency (RF) switch technologies, including poor isolation, high insertion loss, not suitable for next-generation (Next-G) wireless communications. The proposed new transfer-free graphene based bridge-contact mechanical switch (gSwitch) device structure will be designed and fabricated in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit (IC) platform (CMOS-gSwitch) using heterogeneous integration (HI) technology. gSwitch device represents a disruptively new switching device with several novelties: gSwitch utilizes electrostatic actuation and bridge-contact ohmic contact on/off switching mechanisms to possibly realize an ideal switch with ultrahigh isolation in OFF state, super low insertion loss in ON state and negligible power consumption. The light mass density and high Young’s modulus of graphene membrane can potentially achieve pico-second level switching speed. The bridge-contact structure can potentially prevent the stiction problem. The excellent mechanical strength of graphene may ensure high endurance of gSwitch devices supporting billion switching cycles. This project has several tasks: Task-1 to prove the new gSwitch device concept; Task-2 to develop wafer-scale transfer-free metal-carbon-insulator interface based graphene-on-silicondioxide synthesis technology for making gSwitch devices on silicon wafers; Task-3 to develop a HI fabrication flow to integrate new gSwitch devices into CMOS; Task-4 to demonstrate RF switch ICs using gSwitch for Next-G systems; Task-5 to demonstrate a frequency mixer using gSwitch. Integrated research-education activities are planned, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) will be promoted during this project. If successful, the societal impacts will be significant by always-connecting the world for unlimited internet of everything (IoET) applications, contributing to reduce the global wireless disparity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

项目名称：EAGER：探索未来射频集成电路的石墨烯机械开关（提案号：2302688；PI: Albert Wang）半导体射频集成电路使无线通信的普及永远改变了我们的生活。今天，很难想象没有智能手机和无线网络的生活。在万物互联的新兴时代，当前对“始终连接”世界的追求需要超越第五代（5G）的新一代（Next-G）无线技术，它依赖于先进的射频集成电路芯片来支持更高的频率、更宽的带宽和更多的频谱，以实现更高的数据速率、更低的功耗和更短的系统延迟。想象一下，同一地区的数百名用户同时使用智能手机，如何避免其间的串扰？这就是射频开关设备在现代无线通信中发挥关键作用的地方，特别是对于Next-G无线系统。遗憾的是，传统的基于半导体晶体管的射频开关由于其固有的技术问题，如串扰抗扰性差和信号损耗高，无法支持Next-G无线通信，这些问题将由拟议的研究解决。该项目将探索一种具有颠覆性的新型射频开关技术，该技术利用一种新型的基于石墨烯的微机电系统开关，并将其异构集成到半导体集成电路平台中，以实现具有超高串扰隔离，超低信号传播损耗，超快开关速度的新型开关器件，以支持Next-G无线通信。这项为期两年的EAGER提案将探索一种革命性的基于石墨烯的新型机械开关概念，以解决基于半导体场效应晶体管（FET）的射频（RF）开关技术固有的基本技术挑战，包括隔离性差，插入损耗高，不适合下一代（Next-G）无线通信。提出的新型无转移石墨烯基桥触机械开关（gSwitch）器件结构将采用异质集成（HI）技术在互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）集成电路（IC）平台（CMOS-gSwitch）上设计和制造。gSwitch器件是一种具有颠覆性的新型开关器件，具有几个新颖之处：gSwitch利用静电驱动和桥接欧姆接触开/关开关机制，可能实现关状态下超高隔离、开状态下超低插入损耗和可忽略功耗的理想开关。石墨烯薄膜的轻质量密度和高杨氏模量有可能实现皮秒级的开关速度。桥接结构可以潜在地防止粘滞问题。石墨烯优异的机械强度可以确保gSwitch器件支持十亿次开关循环的高耐久性。本项目有几个任务：任务1验证新的gSwitch器件概念；开发基于硅片上无转移金属-碳绝缘体界面的石墨烯-二氧化硅合成技术，用于硅片上制造gSwitch器件；Task-3开发HI制造流程，将新的gSwitch器件集成到CMOS中；任务4演示Next-G系统中使用gSwitch的射频开关ic；任务5演示使用gSwitch的频率混频器。计划开展综合研究教育活动，促进多样性、公平和包容。如果成功，其社会影响将是巨大的，因为它将始终连接世界，实现无限的万物互联（IoET）应用，有助于减少全球无线差距。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。