Kaul A.B.
National Science Foundation, US
Keywords: green electronics, NEMS, organic photovoltaics, organic semiconductors, TFETs
Green electronics is largely driven by performance limitations of scaled Si-based CMOS due to the exceptionally high power dissipation arising in such devices at nanoscale dimensions. Novel architectures for computation are currently in consideration, which include tunneling field-effect-transistors (TFETs), as well as nano- electro-mechanical-systems (NEMS) due to their abrupt ON/OFF transitions, low OFF state currents and high speed operation. Besides this overview of green transistor technologies, where low-dimensional materials such as graphene and semiconducting nanowires are under consideration, the other area that is discussed in this paper relates to the use of environmentally friendly, biodegradable organic polymers, for enabling high- efficiency, low-cost organic photovoltaics. Other advantages of organic PV lie in manufacturing processes that utilize room temperature techniques, where such solar cell architectures are also compatible with flexible electronics using roll-to-roll processing.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 3, Nanotechnology 2012: Bio Sensors, Instruments, Medical, Environment and Energy (Volume 3)
Published: June 18, 2012
Pages: 716 - 719
Industry sectors: Energy & Sustainability | Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topics: Informatics, Modeling & Simulation, Sustainable Materials
ISBN: 978-1-4665-6276-9