Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings

Accelerating The Quest For Quicker, Longer-Lasting Electronics

By University of California - Riverside | June 28, 2017

Share

In the world of electronics, where the quest is always for smaller and faster units with infinite battery life, topological insulators (TI) have tantalizing potential.

In a paper published today in Science Advances, Jing Shi, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, and colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Arizona State University report they have created a TI film just 25 atoms thick that adheres to an insulating magnetic film, creating a “heterostructure.” This heterostructure makes TI surfaces magnetic at room temperatures and higher, to above 400 Kelvin or more than 720 degrees Fahrenheit.

The surfaces of TI are only a few atoms thick and need little power to conduct electricity. If TI surfaces are made magnetic, current only flows along the edges of the devices, requiring even less energy. Thanks to this so-called quantum anomalous Hall effect, or QAHE, a TI device could be tiny and its batteries long lasting, Shi said.

Engineers love QAHE because it makes devices very robust, that is, hearty enough to stand up against defects or errors, so that a faulty application, for instance, doesn’t crash an entire operating system.

Topological insulators are the only materials right now that can achieve the coveted QAHE, but only after they are magnetized, and therein lies the problem: TI surfaces aren’t naturally magnetic.

Scientists have been able to achieve magnetism in TI by doping, i.e. introducing magnetic impurities to the material, which also made it less stable, Shi said. The doping allowed TI surfaces to demonstrate QAHE, but only at extremely low temperatures — a few hundredths of a degree in Kelvin above absolute zero, or about 459 degrees below zero Fahrenheit — not exactly conducive to wide popular use.

Many scientists blamed the doping for making QAHE occur only at very low temperatures, Shi said, which prompted researchers to start looking for another technique to make TI surfaces magnetic.

Enter UCR’s SHINES (Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems) lab, a Department of Energy-funded energy frontier research center at UCR that Shi leads and is focused on developing films, composites and other ways to harvest or use energy more efficiently from nano (think really small, as in molecular or atom-sized) technology.

In 2015, Shi’s lab first created heterostructures of magnetic films and one-atom-thick graphene materials by using a technique called laser molecular beam epitaxy. The same atomically flat magnetic insulator films are critical for both graphene and topological insulators.

“The materials have to be in intimate contact for TI to acquire magnetism,” Shi said. “If the surface is rough, there won’t be good contact. We’re good at making this magnetic film atomically flat, so no extra atoms are sticking out.”

UCR’s lab then sent the materials to its collaborators at MIT, who used molecular beam epitaxy to build 25 atomic TI layers on top of the magnetic sheets, creating the heterostructures, which were then sent back to UCR for device fabrication and measurements.

More research is needed to make TI show the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) at high temperatures, and then make the materials available for miniaturization in electronics, Shi said, but the SHINES lab findings show that by taking the heterostructures approach, TI surfaces can be made magnetic — and robust — at normal temperatures.

Making smaller, faster devices operate at the same or higher levels of efficiency as their larger, slower predecessors “doesn’t happen naturally,” Shi said.

“Engineers work hard to make all the devices work the same way and it takes a lot of engineering to get there.”

UCR SHINES lab researcher Chi Tang is first author on the paper in “Science Advances,” along with co-first author Dr. Cui-Zu Chang, formerly of MIT, and now at Penn State University. The project also included several collaborators from UCR, MIT, Penn State and Arizona State University, Shi said.


Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine)

 

Related Articles Read More >

Part 6: IDE and other software for connectivity and IoT design work
Part 4: Edge computing and gateways proliferate for industrial machinery
Part 3: Trends in Ethernet, PoE, IO-Link, HIPERFACE, and single-cable solutions
Machine Learning for Sensors

DESIGN GUIDE LIBRARY

“motion

Enews Sign Up

Motion Control Classroom

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Renishaw next-generation FORTiS™ enclosed linear encoders offer enhanced metrology and reliability for machine tools
  • WAGO’s smartDESIGNER Online Provides Seamless Progression for Projects
  • Epoxy Certified for UL 1203 Standard
  • The Importance of Industrial Cable Resistance to Chemicals and Oils
  • Optimize, streamline and increase production capacity with pallet-handling conveyor systems
  • Global supply needs drive increased manufacturing footprint development

Design World Podcasts

June 12, 2022
How to avoid over engineering a part
See More >
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • Advertising
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Engineering White Papers
  • LEAP AWARDS

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings