Century-old problem: ... professor finds out what causes low-frequency electronic 1/f noise

Phys.Org ^ | 03-07-2013 | Provided by University of California - Riverside

[Red Badger]

This could start a whole new revolution in electronics...............

[Red Badger]

Ping!.....anybody have a Ham Radio ping list?..........

[Hotlanta Mike]

Good post...thanks!

[ShadowAce]

[ShadowAce]

[GOPJ]

OK - nice description of how they figured out how to find where the pink's coming from - but then the article ends... So where does it come from?

[RightOnTheBorder]

Graphene has some amazing properties. UCLA recently figured out how to cheaply make graphene from graphite oxide. There very well may be a low power electronics revolution a-brewing.

[Red Badger]

http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v102/i9/p093111_s1?isAuthorized=no Low-frequency noise with the spectral density S(f)∼1/fγ (f is the frequency and γ ≈ 1) is a ubiquitous phenomenon, which hampers operation of many devices and circuits. A long-standing question of particular importance for electronics is whether 1/f noise is generated on the surface of electrical conductors or inside their volumes. Using high-quality graphene multilayers, we were able to directly address this fundamental problem of the noise origin. Unlike the thickness of metal or semiconductor films, the thickness of graphene multilayers can be continuously and uniformly varied all the way down to a single atomic layer of graphene—the actual surface. We found that 1/f noise becomes dominated by the volume noise when the thickness exceeds ∼7 atomic layers (∼2.5 nm). The 1/f noise is the surface phenomenon below this thickness. The obtained results are important for continuous downscaling of conventional electronics and for the proposed graphene applications in sensors and communications.

[cuban leaf]

Graphene again. Interesting.

[dadfly]

bookmark.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

We found that 1/f noise becomes dominated by the volume noise when the thickness exceeds ∼7 atomic layers (∼2.5 nm). The 1/f noise is the surface phenomenon below this thickness.

[steve86]

"The 1/f noise is the surface phenomenon below this thickness"

Funny, I woke up during the night with that very idea in my head. No clue what it meant at the time.

[UCANSEE2]

So where does it come from?

[UCANSEE2]

"The 1/f noise is the surface phenomenon below this thickness"

Isn't that like saying that the noise is the HUM of the PLANCK FLOOR ?

[Red Badger]

Only if you have a loose Planck in the floor.......

[Red Badger]

Listen to voices in your head? Sometimes they can be very troubling..........

[rarestia]

They found that noise was generated above a certain distance between fields. They’ve literally narrowed down a field to a distance smaller than where the noise occurs (at least to a measurable extent), and thus, the noise is no longer an issue.

This will definitely herald an age of microelectronics to make our current iPhones and Droid devices look like the bag phones of the 80s.

[Alas Babylon!]

Forget about iPhones and Droids!

The answer is in the Surface phenomenom!

[rarestia]

Ugh... don’t get me started on MS’s latest abysmal marketing campaign.

[zeugma]

OK - nice description of how they figured out how to find where the pink's coming from - but then the article ends... So where does it come from?

That's exactly what I was thinking.