A development by the Chinese Academy of Sciences has demonstrated wide bandwidth, low power consumption, and stable operation in areas where thermal noise typically degrades sensitivity.
Conventional diodes have been helping electronics "read" radio waves, light, and other electromagnetic signals for decades, but this design has long since reached its limits. Interference increases at high frequencies, weak signals are lost in thermal noise, and speed is limited by the time it takes for electrons to travel through the device. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have announced they have found a way to overcome several of these limitations.
In a paper published in Nature Electronics, the team presented a new device called rectenna, a hybrid rectifier and antenna. The design is based on the Weyl semimetal NbIrTe4, or niobium-iridium tetratelluride. This quantum material helps directly and highly efficiently convert electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal, without cooling and at room temperature.
Classic pn diodes operate due to the nonlinear motion of electrons. This property allows the diode to rectify alternating current and mix signals of different frequencies. The problem is that thermal effects introduce noise and cause the electrons to move chaotically, making weak input signals increasingly difficult to detect against this background. The second bottleneck is related to the speed of charge transfer through the device. At very high frequencies, the delay begins to interfere with normal operation.
The authors of the new study abandoned the conventional design and built a device in which the material itself provides the required conversion due to its unique band structure and topology. As a result, the NbIrTe4-based rectenna demonstrated a wide operating range from 20 to 820 GHz. The experiment also demonstrated a frequency comb above the 27th order, subharmonic mixing at low input signal power of -25 dBm, a tunable sideband wider than 100 GHz, and intermediate signals above 27 GHz.
For a laboratory prototype, the set of characteristics appears particularly strong, as the device maintains high efficiency under extreme conditions and does not require a large input power. Essentially, the researchers demonstrated a compact element that simultaneously receives a signal and converts it into a form suitable for electronics.
If the technology is successfully implemented, it could be useful in next-generation wireless communication systems operating in the millimeter-wave and terahertz ranges, in miniature, highly sensitive sensors, and in faster optoelectronic devices. The Chinese team's work also paves the way for new rectennas based on other topological materials, which were previously considered more exotic in fundamental physics than as a basis for practical electronics.
Conventional diodes have been helping electronics "read" radio waves, light, and other electromagnetic signals for decades, but this design has long since reached its limits. Interference increases at high frequencies, weak signals are lost in thermal noise, and speed is limited by the time it takes for electrons to travel through the device. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have announced they have found a way to overcome several of these limitations.
In a paper published in Nature Electronics, the team presented a new device called rectenna, a hybrid rectifier and antenna. The design is based on the Weyl semimetal NbIrTe4, or niobium-iridium tetratelluride. This quantum material helps directly and highly efficiently convert electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal, without cooling and at room temperature.
Classic pn diodes operate due to the nonlinear motion of electrons. This property allows the diode to rectify alternating current and mix signals of different frequencies. The problem is that thermal effects introduce noise and cause the electrons to move chaotically, making weak input signals increasingly difficult to detect against this background. The second bottleneck is related to the speed of charge transfer through the device. At very high frequencies, the delay begins to interfere with normal operation.
The authors of the new study abandoned the conventional design and built a device in which the material itself provides the required conversion due to its unique band structure and topology. As a result, the NbIrTe4-based rectenna demonstrated a wide operating range from 20 to 820 GHz. The experiment also demonstrated a frequency comb above the 27th order, subharmonic mixing at low input signal power of -25 dBm, a tunable sideband wider than 100 GHz, and intermediate signals above 27 GHz.
For a laboratory prototype, the set of characteristics appears particularly strong, as the device maintains high efficiency under extreme conditions and does not require a large input power. Essentially, the researchers demonstrated a compact element that simultaneously receives a signal and converts it into a form suitable for electronics.
If the technology is successfully implemented, it could be useful in next-generation wireless communication systems operating in the millimeter-wave and terahertz ranges, in miniature, highly sensitive sensors, and in faster optoelectronic devices. The Chinese team's work also paves the way for new rectennas based on other topological materials, which were previously considered more exotic in fundamental physics than as a basis for practical electronics.
