Much of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (MWC) revolves around the products and services available to the public: consumer mobile technology, mainly smartphone as well as a range of devices that interface with these for a variety of uses. (Read “The green side of technology”)
Another part of the event revolves around conferences and meetings at which the future of the mobile communications is discussed on issues such use spectrum, identification and acceptance of international bands as well as the next network standards (such as the notorious 5G) .
and in a talk about the technology future scientific innovation the riskiest of all card is played: bet the whole hand in techniques, materials and concepts that could change and redefine what can be done with mobile technology. In this segment, one of the attractions of the congress is the section on graphene
Graphene is a material with properties that, without too much grandstanding, qualify as extraordinary. it is the thinnest material in the world (a million times thinner than a human hair), 200 times stronger than steel, lightweight (just one square meter weighs less than a gram), very flexible It exists in two dimensions (which suggests new applications for electronics and composite materials) and highly conductive (the electrons move through it faster than silicon, for example).
All of these properties have captured the imagination, and budget, a good portion of research centers in Europe who joined under the name Graphene Flagship to form the project largest in the continent’s history joint research. This initiative has 150 members in 23 countries and a budget of 1,000 million euros to investigate the possible applications of a material that could dramatically alter the landscape of electronics and communications.
Uses the which is investigating Daniel Schall , a German company engineer LOVE , which is developing transmitters graphene that can be printed in a kind of plastic sheet on a larger scale than a silicon chip. “The advantages of this material is that on a basis of two square centimeters can fit 20 transmitters can receive signals in the 2.4 GHz band, ie, WiFi signals or Bluetooth signal loss much smaller than a silicon chip. Based in turn is flexible, so much so that it is almost possible to completely fold it in half. “
The use of such transmitters for electronic devices you can change the architecture that is designed a phone , such as light weight, malleability and conductivity can think of new ways to adapt mobile communications to virtually anything, not just a rigid structure that requires a fixed space to accommodate a receiver. “We are in the development phase and do not want to sound pretentious, or immodest, but people from telecommunications companies that have visited us see a demonstration of the equipment and the data we have and are in total silence, impressed. It happened that some are left with their mouths open. “
However, 1,000 million is an amount that achieves buy good research, but maybe it’s not a cost that the industry wants to pay at a time that the world economy tumbles hand oil prices, among other things. And, ultimately, silicon is a relatively inexpensive proposition, also well known.
“The cost of graphene is relative, because ultimately if it be a demand and a big development because the price drops. But what is interesting is that, today, industry processors and semiconductors (names like Intel or Qualcomm, name just two) are looking for serious alternatives to silicon, because some scale (below five nanometers) this material begins to exhibit resistance to electric current. And a chip that does not lead either electricity is a chip that does not work, “says Gonçalo Gonçalves, engineer Aixtron, a company that leads the artificial production of graphene high purity.
Part of this chemical process to achieve high quality material involves the use of a base, a substrate, which apply various chemical processes for graphene end in its most pure (one necessary condition to achieve the best possible conductivity). This substrate, to date, usually copper. But the process means that once the metal is used for this task should be scrapped, thereby increasing production costs. “Part of what is being investigated are other substrates that can be reused and so the production price would drop significantly, which would give this material a significant competitive advantage over silicon,” said Gonçalves
Graphene Flagship delegation that was present at the MWC includes a number of academic institutions that have launched or are in the process of doing so, commercial applications of this material. One of these organizations is the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) , which is based in Castelldefels, a quiet village 20 minutes from Barcelona.
The mission of this place is as its name implies, the study of light. And in the case of graphene, his research has focused on the properties of the material to read both the visible light, such as invisible. “An infrared camera based on a silicon chip for a high level of detection, can cost 25,000 euros (about US $ 27,000). If done in graphene, it should be around 2,000 to 3,000 euros, “says Marc Montagut, one of the researchers ICFO working on the development of graphene.
the institute has also developed a heart rate monitor based on a sheet of graphene, by filtering the green light comes as part of the light we perceive as white. “ The green light has the property that, passing through the human body changes when you leave us. we can accurately measure this difference and, in this case, we use it to see the pulsations of a person. ” This property has Montagut, could apply to medical chips that function as a kind of tattoo that could be placed on the skin of a patient: “They are transparent, light and do not need cables to transmit the information being sought. Are much less invasive, “he adds.
” Graphene is a material that still requires research, but it has many electrical and mechanical advantages, which suggests applications for devices that are worn (the called wearables) to open up the spectrum for this sector. We could be talking about a revolution in the future “, in the words of Samiul Haque, research Nokia that works in conjunction with the University of Cambridge joint, and perhaps global exploration of graphene.
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