Energy relaxation and thermal rectification in carbon devices

Power dissipation is a major challenge in modern electronics, from battery-limited portable devices to cooling in massive data centers. The most often cited technological roadblock of nanoscale electronics is the \textquotedblleft{}power problem\textquotedblright{} i.e. power densities and device temperatures reaching levels that will prevent their reliable operation. A majority of the power is dissipated during individual transistor switching, but a great deal of power is also dissipated through thermionic leakage. Therefore, a deeper understanding of power dissipation and energy efficiency at the individual device level could have a global impact, affecting all future electronics. In general, power in electronic devices is dissipated in the form of heat and is slowly lost to the environment. Given that all integrated circuits have a gate oxide (SiO₂) and several layers of inter-level-dielectric, the bulk of the heat is likely to be retained in the device because SiO₂ has a much lower thermal conductivity (1.4 W/m-K) than silicon (150 W/m-K). This leads to self-heating, mobility degradation and unreliable performance over time. This work examines the physics of energy relaxation in nanoscale transistors based on new popular materials like carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoribbons. The results hold significance for the design of future low power nanoscale devices and show that tunnel devices based on carbon nanotubes with a band gap less than 0.44 eV dissipate less than one sixtieth the power dissipated in traditional thermionic transistors. In addition, this thesis explores ways of efficient cooling of electronic devices by controlling heat flow and shows that thermal rectification in patterned graphene structures is possible.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Ramasubramanian, Balaji

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pop, Eric

• carbon nanotubes
• energy relaxation
• power dissipation
• graphene
• graphene nanoribbons
• phonon
• thermal rectification
• thermal diode
• tunnel transistors
• Zener tunneling
• band-to-band tunneling
• scattering
• electron-phonon interaction
• acoustic phonons
• boundary scattering
• acoustic simulation

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Balaji Ramasubramanian

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/15979

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/15979