New Oscillator Could Lead To Cheaper Electronic DevicesNew Oscillator Could Lead To Cheaper Electronic Devices

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a tiny device to generate microwave signals that eventually could be built into integrated circuits with the same technologies used to make computer chips, the institute said Friday. NIST physicist William Rippard says the new oscillators may replace bulkier technologies in cell phones, wireless Internet devices, radar systems, and other applications at a greatly reduced cost.

According to the NIST, the device works by exploiting individual electrons in an electric current that behave like minuscule magnets, each one with a spin that is either up or down--just as an ordinary magnet has a north and a south pole. The device consists of two magnetic films separated by a nonmagnetic layer of copper. As an electric current passes through the first magnetic film, the electrons in the current align their spins to match the magnetic orientation in the film. But when the now aligned electrons flow through the second magnetic film, the process is reversed. This time the alignment of the electrons is transferred to the film. The result is that the magnetization of the film rapidly switches direction, or oscillates, generating a microwave signal. The microwave signal can be tuned from less than 5 GHz--5 billion oscillations a second--to greater than 40 GHz.

The NIST experiments confirm predictions made by theorists at IBM and Carnegie Mellon University in 1996.