Reconfigurable Low-Voltage Hexagonal Boron Nitride Nonvolatile Switches for Millimeter-Wave Wireless Communications.

Yang, Sung Jin; Dahan, Mor Mordechai; Levit, Or; Makal, Frank; Peterson, Paul; Alikpala, Jason; Nibhanupudi, Ss Teja; Luth, Christopher J et al. · Nano Lett · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Recently, nonvolatile resistive switching memory effects have been actively studied in two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides and boron nitrides to advance future memory and neuromorphic computing applications. Here, we report on radiofrequency (RF) switches utilizing hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) memristors that afford operation in the millimeter-wave (mmWave) range. Notably, silver (Ag) electrodes to h-BN offer outstanding nonvolatile bipolar resistive switching characteristics with a high ON/OFF switching ratio of 10<sup>11</sup> and low switching voltage below 0.34 V. In addition, the switch exhibits a low insertion loss of 0.50 dB and high isolation of 23 dB across the <i>D</i>-band spectrum (110 to 170 GHz). Furthermore, the <i>S</i><sub>21</sub> insertion loss can be tuned through five orders of current compliance magnitude, which increases the application prospects for atomic switches. These results can enable the switch to become a key component for future reconfigurable wireless and 6G communication systems.