Home > Press > New technique could mean super thin, strong graphene-based circuits
 |
| Provided/Jiwoong Park Schematic illustration of single-atom-thick films with patterned regions of conducting graphene (gray) and insulating boron nitride (purple-blue). |
Abstract:
Integrated circuits, which are in everything from coffeemakers to computers and are patterned from perfectly crystalline silicon, are quite thin -- but Cornell researchers think they can push thin-film boundaries to the single-atom level.
New technique could mean super thin, strong graphene-based circuits
Ithaca, NY | Posted on August 29th, 2012Their materials of choice are graphene, single atom-thick sheets of repeating carbon atoms, and hexagonal boron nitride, similarly thin sheets of repeating boron and nitrogen atoms. Researchers led by Jiwoong Park, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, have invented a way to pattern single atom films of graphene and boron nitride, an insulator, without the use of a silicon substrate. The work is detailed in an article in the journal Nature, published online Aug. 30.
The technique, which they call patterned regrowth, could lead to substrate-free, atomically thin circuits -- so thin, they could float on water or through air, but with tensile strength and top-notch electrical performance.
"We know how to grow graphene in single atom-thick films, and we know how to grow boron nitride," Park said. "But can we bring them together side and side? And when you bring them together, what happens at their junctions?"
As it turns out, researchers' patterned regrowth, which harnesses the same basic photolithography technology used in silicon wafer processing, allows graphene and boron nitride to grow in perfectly flat, structurally smooth films -- no creases or bumps, like a well-knitted scarf -- which, if combined with the final, yet to be realized step of introducing a semiconductor material, could lead to the first atomically thin integrated circuit.
Simple really is beautiful, especially in the case of thin films, because photolithography is a well-established technique that forms the basis for making integrated circuits by laying materials, one layer at a time, on flat silicon.
Patterned regrowth is a bit like stenciling, Park said. He and colleagues first grew graphene on copper and used photolithography to expose graphene on selected areas, depending on the desired pattern. They filled that exposed copper surface with boron nitride, the insulator, which grows on copper and "fills the gaps in very nicely."
"In the end, it forms a very nice cloth you just peel off," Park said.
The research team, which includes David A. Muller, professor of applied and engineering physics, is working to determine what material would best work with graphene-boron nitride thin films to make up the final semiconducting layer that could turn the films into actual devices.
The team was helped by already being skilled at making graphene -- still relatively new in the materials world -- as well as Muller's expertise in electron microscopy characterization at the nanoscale. Muller helped the team confirm that the lateral junctions of the two materials were, indeed, smooth and well connected.
The paper's co-first authors were chemistry graduate student Mark Levendorf and postdoctoral associate Cheol-Joo Kim, who fabricated the graphene and boron nitride samples and also performed the patterned regrowth at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility.
The work was supported primarily by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the National Science Foundation through the Cornell Center for Materials Research.
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Media Contact:
Syl Kacapyr
(607) 255-7701
Cornell Chronicle:
Anne Ju
(607) 255-9735
Copyright © Cornell University
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Bookmark:
| Related News Press |
News and information
Bosch announces high-performance MEMS acceleration sensors for wearables June 27th, 2017
NMRC, University of Nottingham chooses the Quorum Q150 coater for its reliable and reproducible film thickness when coating samples with iridium June 27th, 2017
Picosun’s ALD solutions enable novel high-speed memories June 27th, 2017
Thin films
NMRC, University of Nottingham chooses the Quorum Q150 coater for its reliable and reproducible film thickness when coating samples with iridium June 27th, 2017
Graphene/ Graphite
Rice U. chemists create 3-D printed graphene foam June 22nd, 2017
Thought Leaders and Experts Join National Graphene Association Advisory Board June 16th, 2017
Seeing the invisible with a graphene-CMOS integrated device June 6th, 2017
Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy
Atomic imperfections move quantum communication network closer to reality June 25th, 2017
Rice U. chemists create 3-D printed graphene foam June 22nd, 2017
Discoveries
Physicists make quantum leap in understanding life's nanoscale machinery June 27th, 2017
Picosun’s ALD solutions enable novel high-speed memories June 27th, 2017
Atomic imperfections move quantum communication network closer to reality June 25th, 2017
Announcements
Bosch announces high-performance MEMS acceleration sensors for wearables June 27th, 2017
NMRC, University of Nottingham chooses the Quorum Q150 coater for its reliable and reproducible film thickness when coating samples with iridium June 27th, 2017
Picosun’s ALD solutions enable novel high-speed memories June 27th, 2017
Military
Atomic imperfections move quantum communication network closer to reality June 25th, 2017
Rice U. chemists create 3-D printed graphene foam June 22nd, 2017
 |
||
 |
||
| The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
 |
||
|
|
||
| Premium Products | ||
 |
||
|
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
University Technology Transfer & Patents
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
|
|
||