Detecting signals buried in noise via nanowire transistors using stochastic resonance

We demonstrate stochastic resonance (SR), which takes advantage of noise to detect a weak signal, using a field-effect transistor (FET). An FET's structure composed of a nanowire channel enables current characteristics to show strong nonlinearity, which overcomes thermal limitation, and dynamic bistability, both of which boost an effect of SR and silhouette noise from noise. Moreover, the dynamic bistability enables SR effect to be enhanced by adding common noise to multiple FETs. The FET providing such unique characteristics opens the way to use SR for practical applications. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4766946]