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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Atom-Thin Switches Could Route 5G and 6G Radio Signals [ieee.org]

Two-dimensional, atom-thin materials are good for a lot of things, but until two years ago, nobody thought they'd make good memory devices. Then Deji Akinwande [utexas.edu], Jack Lee [utexas.edu], and their team at UT Austin tried it out. It turns out that sandwiching a 2D material like molybdenum disulfide between two electrodes makes a memristor—a two-terminal device that stores data as a change in resistance. In research reported last week, they've proved a very important potential application for these "atomristors [ieee.org]"—analog RF switches for 5G and perhaps future 6G radios [ieee.org].

[...] The key figure of merit for RF switches is called cut-off frequency. It's a combination of on-state resistance and off-state capacitance, both of which should be low in a good switch. Terahertz values for cutoff frequency indicate that a device is a good candidate for an RF switch, and the experimental hBN devices scored 129 terahertz. As part of the testing, the team transmitted real-time high-definition video at a rate of 8.5 gigabits per second using a 100 gigahertz carrier frequency, which they say is more than sufficient for 5G's streaming needs. At this data rate, several movies can be downloaded in a few seconds. They reported their results in Nature Electronics [nature.com].

[...] For 6G frequencies, which are expected to include frequencies in the terahertz range (300 to 3000 GHz), the UT Austin team is planning new laboratory measurements.

Original Submission