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comes a 'chip' of graphene

The English Tomás Palacios, a professor at MIT, making graphene transistors get 10 times faster than silicon.

The 'chips' of the revolutionary material, one atom thick, could reach speeds of thousand GHz

First was copper. This material allowed to transmit information from one point to another. Then came the original germanium transistor, created at Bell Labs. Began the era of computer technology but, as the material was unstable and was replaced by silicon, the semiconductor chips are manufactured in the last century.

silicon's reign is coming to an end. No suffering, and has no substitute and is called graphene. In 15 or 20 computers, cell phones, sensors and other electronic equipment will be of this new material, a form of pure carbon.

A research team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led English by Tomas Palacios, is making one of the first devices and electronic circuits based on graphene, discovered in 2004 by scientists and Kostya Novoselov Andre Geim of the University of Manchester. With

between semiconductor and metal properties, this new material one atomic layer thick revolutionize telecommunications and computing to enable the manufacture of microprocessors, sensors and communications systems much faster than today. "One of the paradigms of the electronics is to increase the frequency of electrical signals to produce ever-faster computers or phones capable of transmitting data faster. "If the silicon chips could reach a maximum speed of 100 GHz, using graphene transistors reach the terahertz (1 THz). That is, 10 times," says the 30-year Madrid, professor MIT.El prototype "graphene transistor was presented at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society in March. Also published in Electron Device Letters , the most prestigious magazine of the U.S. electronics in its May issue. If all goes well, in two years will commercial versions of these advanced chips to market .

team Palacios transistors has not only made ten times faster than silicon. It also exploits the properties of graphene to develop electronic devices that could not make any other material. For example, a frequency multiplier "will enhance wireless communications and the current silicon electronics, doubling the transmission capacity of each chip to be added to the multiplier."

Palacios is a telecommunications engineer. With 19 years researching and compound semiconductors such as gallium nitride, at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). A year after finishing the race, he moved to California for further study. Finished his doctorate, he got the position of Professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. In addition, he began to lead a team of 12 people in the microsystems technology laboratories of the technology center. They have managed to produce graphene transistors capable of transmitting data at high speed. They also develop a sensor based on this material, while pointing to a food, determine if it is fresh.

Graphene is pure carbon. Many researchers have studied theoretically for more than 50 years. Nobody believed I could make devices with this material until, in 2004, scientists at the University of Manchester (Great Britain) discovered how to obtain graphene from graphite, the material of the pencil. "If you hit multiple times and take off a piece of tape impregnated with graphite fragments of the mine, just getting graphene: a single layer of carbon atoms," says Palacios.

The procedure was very rudimentary, but opened the door for many scientists began working with the material, whose properties are "amazing and unique. Mechanically, it is the toughest ever discovered. In the future, could allow the manufacture of any structure, such as cars and airplanes, more durable and lightweight. Electronic level, is more mobile, a hundred times that of silicon, which can accelerate electrons to speeds much higher than possible in any other semiconductor, "says Palacios.

Graphene Industries, created by the discoverers of graphene is the only company that sells it. the moment. Several university groups and companies seeking to develop an alternative way to get it, and it is easy to produce industrially, the main stumbling block.

Jing Kong, Palacios colleague at MIT, creates whole wafers of graphene on a nickel surface. "This method is more useful from the point of view, however, the mobility graphene is smaller than that obtained by pasting and taking off pieces of enthusiasm. "researcher, convinced of its possibilities, says:" It's a great material. Not only revolutionized the electronics, computing and communications, but that is changing the way physics is studied.

Mini particle accelerator.

Does it sound the CERN particle accelerator? Complex , which occupies square kilometers near Geneva (Switzerland), used to explore the world of the infinitely small to find the fundamental elements of matter. Physicists are trying to use graphene to build a kind of miniature accelerator. "In a graphene fragment of a single square centimeter can perform many experiments that previously required labs like CERN."

If it becomes reality, scientists could find the Higgs boson, a hypothetical elementary particle that has not been observed, and known as the God particle, in a lab that fits on your fingertip.

SOURCE: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/portada/Llega/chip/grafeno/elpepisupcib/20090430elpcibpor_1/Tes