Ballistic Electronics - Leap into Room-Temperature Terahertz Computation

Martin Margala, Electrical and Computer Engineering

This work presents a unique type of transistor that is intended to operate to THz frequencies and beyond, at room temperature, with low noise and with very low power requirements.  This transistor is unique in that no doping junction or barrier structure is employed.  Rather, the transistor utilizes a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) to achieve ballistic electron transport in a gated microstructure, combined with asymmetric geometrical deflection.  We call it the "Ballistic Deflection Transistor" (BDT). Using this structure, simple electronic logic circuits can be assembled.