title: A nanoscale piezoelectric transformer for low-voltage transistors.
abstract: A novel piezoelectric voltage transformer for low-voltage transistors is proposed. Placing a piezoelectric transformer on the gate of a field-effect transistor results in the piezoelectric transformer field-effect transistor that can switch at significantly lower voltages than a conventional transistor. The piezoelectric transformer operates by using one piezoelectric to squeeze another piezoelectric to generate a higher output voltage than the input voltage. Multiple piezoelectrics can be used to squeeze a single piezoelectric layer to generate an even higher voltage amplification. Coupled electrical and mechanical modeling in COMSOL predicts a 12.5× voltage amplification for a six-layer piezoelectric transformer. This would lead to more than a 150× reduction in the power needed for communications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California , Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
authors.forename: Sapan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yablonovitch
keywords: Piezoelectric; field-effect transistor; low voltage; subthreshold swing; transformer