Graphene RF Transistor Performance

Abstract

Recent excitement about graphene as a possible material for high-frequency electronics has lead to demonstrations of high-frequency field-effect transistors (FETs) in the last two years. Although graphene FETs operate by a different principle than silicon MOSFETs, and have different dc characteristics, their ac properties are quite similar. Hence the high intrinsic mobility of graphene leads to the expectation of high frequency operation of gated graphene FETs. Demonstrations of frequency response in the GHz regime have been shown using both exfoliated flakes and synthesized graphene. An intrinsic cut-off frequency as high as 100 GHz has been achieved in a 240-nm-gate graphene FET fabricated on a 2" wafer of epitaxially-grown graphene. This value exceeds that of Si MOSFETs at the same gate length, illustrating the potential of graphene for RF applications.