Vacuum Channel Transistors for Harsh Environment Electronics

Join us at 10:30 AM in MEC 114 for a presentation from Ranajoy Bhattacharya, a Research Scientist in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Boise State University.

Although vacuum electron devices were once powerful amplifiers, they were replaced by solid-state devices like transistors in the mid-60s due to their ease of fabrication, lower cost, and better integration into circuits. However, vacuum tubes still boast advantages in extreme environments and high-power output. These advantages motivate the miniaturization of vacuum tubes to the micro and nanoscale using modern semiconductor fabrication technology.

This approach offers the best of both worlds: high power/frequency, low cost, and suitability for harsh environments. Additionally, micro and nanoscale vacuum tubes could potentially rival modern transistors in performance with their cold, field emitter cathodes (no heating needed) and lower operational voltages, enabling them to compete with modern transistors in harsh environment electronics. This presentation will explore some of the research progress on nanoscale field emitter based harsh environment electronics currently underway at Boise State University.

Speaker Bio 

Dr. Bhattacharya received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea in 2018. During his Ph.D., he developed and experimentally tested a novel, high current density, tungsten doped graphene-based, sheet beam field emitter cathode and electron gun for application in a compact, THz range vacuum electron device. At present, he is working as a research scientist at Boise State University where he is working on development of harsh environment electronics using micro and mm scale field emitters. His primary research interests are high power, high frequency vacuum electron devices, field emitter devices for harsh environment electronics, cold atmospheric pressure plasma-based pathogen removal system, and radio frequency-based biofilm detection system in food processing facilities.