CVD enabled Graphene Technology and Devices (GRAPHTED)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Engineering
Abstract
Graphene is a single layer of graphite just one atom thick. As a material it is completely new - not only the thinnest ever but also the strongest. It is almost completely transparent, yet as a conductor of electricity it performs as well or even better than copper. Since the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to UK researchers in this field, fundamental graphene research has attracted much investment by industry and governments around the world, and has created unprecedented excitement. There have been numerous proof-of concept demonstrations for a wide range of applications for graphene. Many applications require high quality material, however, most high quality graphene to date is made by exfoliation with scotch tape from graphite flakes. This is not a manufacturable route as graphene produced this way is prohibitively expensive, equivalent to £10bn per 12" wafer. For high quality graphene to become commercially viable, its price needs to be reduced to £30-100 per wafer, a factor of 100 million. Hence graphene production and process technology is the key bottleneck to be overcome in order to unlock its huge application potential. Overcoming this bottleneck lies at the heart of this proposal.
Our proposal aims to develop the potential of graphene into a robust and disruptive technology. We will use a growth method called chemical vapour deposition (CVD) as the key enabler, and address the key questions of industrial materials development. CVD was the growth method that opened up diamond, carbon nanotubes and GaN to industrial scale production. Here it will be developed for graphene as CVD has the potential to give graphene over large areas at low cost and at a quality that equals that of the best exfoliated flakes. CVD is also a quite versatile process that enables novel strategies to integrate graphene with other materials into device architectures. In collaboration with leading industrial partners Aixtron UK, Philips, Intel, Thales and Selex Galileo, we will develop novel integration routes for a diverse set of near-term as well as future applications, for which graphene can outperform current materials and allows the use of previously impossible device form factors and functionality.
We will integrate graphene for instance as a transparent conductor into organic light emitting diodes that offer new, efficient and environmentally friendly solutions for general lighting, including a flexible form factor that could revolutionize traditional lighting designs. We will also integrate graphene into liquid crystal devices that offer ultra high resolution and novel optical storage systems. Unlike currently used materials, graphene is also transparent in the infrared range, which is of great interest for many sensing applications in avionics, military imaging and fire safety which we will explore. Furthermore, we propose to develop a carbon based interconnect technology to overcome the limitations Cu poses for next generation microelectronics. This is a key milestone in the semiconductor industry roadmap. As a potential disruptive future technology, we propose to integrate graphene into so called lab-on-a-chip devices tailored to rapid single-molecule biosensing. These are predicted to revolutionize clinical analysis in particular regarding DNA and protein structure determination.
Our proposal aims to develop the potential of graphene into a robust and disruptive technology. We will use a growth method called chemical vapour deposition (CVD) as the key enabler, and address the key questions of industrial materials development. CVD was the growth method that opened up diamond, carbon nanotubes and GaN to industrial scale production. Here it will be developed for graphene as CVD has the potential to give graphene over large areas at low cost and at a quality that equals that of the best exfoliated flakes. CVD is also a quite versatile process that enables novel strategies to integrate graphene with other materials into device architectures. In collaboration with leading industrial partners Aixtron UK, Philips, Intel, Thales and Selex Galileo, we will develop novel integration routes for a diverse set of near-term as well as future applications, for which graphene can outperform current materials and allows the use of previously impossible device form factors and functionality.
We will integrate graphene for instance as a transparent conductor into organic light emitting diodes that offer new, efficient and environmentally friendly solutions for general lighting, including a flexible form factor that could revolutionize traditional lighting designs. We will also integrate graphene into liquid crystal devices that offer ultra high resolution and novel optical storage systems. Unlike currently used materials, graphene is also transparent in the infrared range, which is of great interest for many sensing applications in avionics, military imaging and fire safety which we will explore. Furthermore, we propose to develop a carbon based interconnect technology to overcome the limitations Cu poses for next generation microelectronics. This is a key milestone in the semiconductor industry roadmap. As a potential disruptive future technology, we propose to integrate graphene into so called lab-on-a-chip devices tailored to rapid single-molecule biosensing. These are predicted to revolutionize clinical analysis in particular regarding DNA and protein structure determination.
Planned Impact
Our project GRAPHTED addresses key questions pertinent to industrial materials development for graphene, in particular low-cost, scalable, reproducible production and integration of high quality graphene. It will develop chemical vapour deposition (CVD) as the main low cost production technique, to reduce the cost from £10bn per wafer (the effective price of exfoliated graphene) down to £30-100 per wafer. This dramatic 100 million-fold cost reduction will allow CVD graphene to replace exfoliated graphene flakes as the standard research material, and to develop an industrial basis for graphene's exploitation, following a similar pathway that allowed CVD to replace other production routes of carbon nanotubes or diamond. This is highly relevant to the academic research relating to graphene and crucial to increase the industrial relevance of graphene, and to enable commercial dividends to be paid on the substantial investment that the UK has already made in graphene research, and which it will make in the future.
The project also contains the full supply chain of beneficiaries, from equipment manufacturers (Aixtron UK) to electronics and photonics companies (Philips, Intel, Thales, Selex Galileo). An immediate route to impact is through Aixtron UK itself, and the many more units of process equipment and upgrades it can sell to research users and industry due to the process technology developed by this project. It is also relevant that Aixtron is also a supplier of GaN and OLED deposition equipment, whose customers (e.g. Philips, Osram) would also be users of the transparent electrode application at the centre of the project. Hence our project has a real potential to create jobs at Aixtron in the UK. We infer that the technology IP created will yield long-term economic benefits to the UK, which will accrue as capability grows.
The long term societal impact of our project can be significant in particular through the diverse set of applications we study that promise for instance environmentally friendly solutions for general lighting, new form factors in life style electronics, improved military imaging and fire safety, and mass sensing applications in healthcare, security and environmental protection.
The project also contains the full supply chain of beneficiaries, from equipment manufacturers (Aixtron UK) to electronics and photonics companies (Philips, Intel, Thales, Selex Galileo). An immediate route to impact is through Aixtron UK itself, and the many more units of process equipment and upgrades it can sell to research users and industry due to the process technology developed by this project. It is also relevant that Aixtron is also a supplier of GaN and OLED deposition equipment, whose customers (e.g. Philips, Osram) would also be users of the transparent electrode application at the centre of the project. Hence our project has a real potential to create jobs at Aixtron in the UK. We infer that the technology IP created will yield long-term economic benefits to the UK, which will accrue as capability grows.
The long term societal impact of our project can be significant in particular through the diverse set of applications we study that promise for instance environmentally friendly solutions for general lighting, new form factors in life style electronics, improved military imaging and fire safety, and mass sensing applications in healthcare, security and environmental protection.
Publications
Alexander-Webber J
(2016)
Encapsulation of graphene transistors and vertical device integration by interface engineering with atomic layer deposited oxide
in 2D Materials
Crovetto A
(2018)
Nondestructive Thickness Mapping of Wafer-Scale Hexagonal Boron Nitride Down to a Monolayer.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Aria AI
(2016)
Parameter Space of Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin Oxides on Graphene.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Caneva S
(2017)
From Growth Surface to Device Interface: Preserving Metallic Fe under Monolayer Hexagonal Boron Nitride
in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Lee S
(2018)
Dirac-Point Shift by Carrier Injection Barrier in Graphene Field-Effect Transistor Operation at Room Temperature.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Braeuninger-Weimer P
(2018)
Fast, Noncontact, Wafer-Scale, Atomic Layer Resolved Imaging of Two-Dimensional Materials by Ellipsometric Contrast Micrography.
in ACS nano
Wang R
(2019)
A Peeling Approach for Integrated Manufacturing of Large Monolayer h-BN Crystals.
in ACS nano
Piquemal-Banci M
(2018)
Insulator-to-Metallic Spin-Filtering in 2D-Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Based on Hexagonal Boron Nitride.
in ACS nano
De Fazio D
(2019)
High-Mobility, Wet-Transferred Graphene Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition.
in ACS nano
Description | The research consoritium focused on overcoming key manufacturing and device intergation challenges for graphene and related 2D materials, and managed to develop the potential of these nanomaterials via CVD based manufacturing technology towards higher TRL levels and industrial applications. In collaboration with leading industrial partners we developed new graphene growth processes (with Aixtron UK, who sell new reactors and recipes based on our results), produced highly efficient graphene based OLEDs (with Philips), developed graphene based bio-sensing platform (with Prognomics and Unilever) and nanopore sensing, demonstrated graphene based magnetic tunnel junctions and novel spin valves (with Thales) and developed graphene electrodes for use in liquid crystal devices in the mid-wave and long-wave infrared (with Selex ES). The success of this project is reflected by the many follow-up projects, for instance on THz metamaterial/graphene optoelectronic modulators and devices (Dr Degl-Innocenti who worked on this project at UCam has been appointed to Lectureship at Lancaster University), to novel metrology and characterisation techniques (with NPL), and Integreated Graphene on Ge/Si Platform for mid-IR Photodetectors (University of Southampton). We also spun-out a new company (HexagonFab) to drive innovative future applications in biotechnology, sensing and quantum computing. Emerging products, such as intelligent sensors, logic/memory components/displays, portable medical devices, energy storage and harvesting systems, have the potential to establish~$150Bn markets by 2026. Graphene and related 2D materials have benefits both in terms of cost-advantage, and uniqueness of attributes and performance. We also started addressing industrially viable integrated manufacturing pathways for h-BN and other 2D materials and provided the critically required science for standardization and industrialization, addressing both short and long-term needs. |
Exploitation Route | We have spun out a new company (HexagonFab) to drive manufacturing in this field and CVD process technology developed in our project is commercially available via Aixtron UK. We anticipate that the developed integration routes will be hugely beneficial to the wide, cross-disciplinary academic and industrial community, which seeks new possibilities to successfully implement graphene and related 2D materials in applications. The innovation achieved in GRAPHTED will strengthen the position of UK based companies in this market. Our results are of equal importance to future industrial end users end users of graphene/2D material growth technology in particular regarding high value added application areas such as OLEDs, optoelectronics, biosensors, THz devices and integrated photonics/quantum computing. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Electronics Energy Environment Healthcare Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology Security and Diplomacy |
URL | http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/hofmann/ |
Description | We have developed CVD manufacturing technology for graphene and related 2D materials that fed into a network of acadamic and industrial partners. Aixtron UK is selling CVD reactors that use our recipes and they have also developed new reactors with our input. With Thales and CNRS we have developed new technology for graphene and h-BN based magnetic tunnel junctions and novel spintronic devices, whereby our new manufacturing strategy proved essential to achieve clean interfaces. With Phllips we developed graphene integration routes into OLED devices. We also developed new technology for 2D material based nanopore sensing, graphene based (bio)sensor platforms, graphene based THz and X-Ray radiation detectors, graphene based ultra-barrier films, graphene based LC devices and novel lenses and 2D based integrated opto-electronics. We successfully addressed many key questions of industrial materials development and paved the way for many follow-up projects. We established ourselves as world-leading in CVD based 2D manufacturing technology. We also have built-up collaboration with NPL to drive forward product and materials standardisation and metrology for these novel materials. The potential of graphene-based biosensors has led to a new start-up company, HexagonFab, driven by the group of Prof. Hofmann (Hexagonfab.com). In its second year, HexagonFab has been awarded multiple prizes, incl. the Merck Displaying Futures Award (2018,$50K), the Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technology Award (2018;£10K) and a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship (Wang, 2019;£60K). In 2021, HexagonFab has succesfully gone through the next funding round, and is now expanding in the Cambridge Science Park. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology,Security and Diplomacy |
Impact Types | Societal Economic Policy & public services |
Description | Advancing the commercial applications of graphene |
Amount | £62,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start |
Description | Aixtron CASE studentship |
Amount | £60,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | CASE studenship with Aixtron UK |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2014 |
End | 09/2018 |
Description | Aixtron student placement |
Amount | £4,500 (GBP) |
Organisation | Aixtron Limited |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2018 |
End | 04/2018 |
Description | CDT studentship |
Amount | £60,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/L016087/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2015 |
End | 09/2018 |
Description | DNA nanostructures for multiplexed protein sensing Sponsor: Oxford Nanopore Ltd., Oxford, UK |
Amount | £290,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Oxford Nanopore Technologies |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2018 |
End | 12/2019 |
Description | Development of Graphene based THz and X-Ray radiation detectors - ESA contract with U. Leicester |
Amount | £89,010 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ESA Contract No. 4000113558/15/F/MOS |
Organisation | European Space Agency |
Sector | Public |
Country | France |
Start | 03/2015 |
End | 09/2016 |
Description | EFRI-2DARE project funded by AFOSR (Air Force Office of Scientific Research, USA) on Novel electro-optically active nanopores (NPs) in atomically thin membranes |
Amount | $150,000 (USD) |
Organisation | US Air Force European Office of Air Force Research and Development |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 01/2020 |
Description | EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-Core Collaboration in Spintronics and Advanced Materials |
Amount | £986,782 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/P005152/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2016 |
End | 03/2021 |
Description | European Research Council, Consolidator Grant 2015 |
Amount | € 1,950,000 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 647144 - DesignerPores |
Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 06/2015 |
End | 06/2020 |
Description | Future Photonics Hub Innovation Fund Southampton |
Amount | £68,806 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 03/2019 |
Description | Innovate UK - Emerging and Enabling Round 3 competition |
Amount | £1,053,150 (GBP) |
Funding ID | Grant application 6724 |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2018 |
End | 11/2020 |
Description | NPL CASE studentship |
Amount | £32,300 (GBP) |
Organisation | NPL Ltd |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2017 |
End | 09/2021 |
Description | Realising the graphene revolution |
Amount | £92,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/M507751/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2015 |
End | 03/2016 |
Description | Translational Prize Fellowship - Dr P. Braeuninger-Weimer |
Amount | £36,086 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2017 |
End | 03/2018 |
Title | Research data supporting "Fast room temperature detection of terahertz quantum cascade lasers with graphene loaded bow-tie plasmonic antenna arrays" |
Description | Imaging folder: it contains all the pictures and datasets of two leaves acquired in the terahertz frequency range and in the visible. In the Leaf1 subfolder are reported the text files (.dat), the matlab files (.fig), and figures (.jpg) for different backgate voltages of the detector. The NEP*.*.opj are origin files containing the data set relatives to the Noise-equivalent-power in different biasing configuration of the detector; positive forward bias (forward3mv,forward5mv), zero bias(0mV) and negative bias (reverse3mv). The detection.opj file contains the detection measurements obtained by blocking and unblocking the THz light onto the detector, at different back-gate voltages; this set of measurements was acquired on 12/2015. The correct_incorrect_polarization.opj and the forward_reverse_bias.opj are origin files containing the data sets relative to the detection experiments with the correct incident light polarization and incorrect one and in the forward and reverse biasing conditions, respectively. This data set has been acquired on 4/2016. The S11Data.txt are the text set data of the simulated reflectivity from the bow-tie arrays obtained by the Comsol simulations for different graphene conductivity values. These data set are also reported in the S11_data.opj origin file. TDS_resonance.opj and TDS_Map.fig are the origin file containing the measured terahertz reflectivity with a broadband frequency source of the detecting array used for the imaging at different back-gate voltages, and the matlab figure reflectivity map for all the arrays, respectively. The Electrical_sd_characterization.opj contains the electrical characterization of the device; it reports the resistance between source and drain contacts by varying the back-gate voltage and at different forward/reverse biases. These data are also reported in the matlab figure file Electrical_SD.fig. Dirac_point.opj is the origin file containg the source-drain resistance at different back-gate voltages needed in order to identify the graphene Dirac point. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/260277 |
Title | Research data supporting "THz nanoscopy of plasmonic resonances with a quantum cascade laser" |
Description | The dataset contains all the experimental data required to reproduce the Figures. The profiles can be extracted from the original files. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/267150 |
Title | Research data supporting Bolometric detection of terahertz quantum cascade laser radiation with graphene-plasmonic antenna arrays |
Description | This dataset is of support of the publication Bolometric detection of terahertz quantum cascade laser radiation with graphene-plasmonic antenna arrays |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/263552 |
Title | Research data supporting Dirac-Point Shift by Carrier Injection Barrier in Graphene Field-Effect Transistor Operation at Room Temperature |
Description | Electrical transport data of graphene devices from EPSRC funded project: GRAPHTED (EP/K016636/1). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Title | Research data supporting: Contactless graphene conductivity mapping on a wide range of substrates with terahertz time-domain reflection spectroscopy |
Description | The data was used to produce the figures in the linked publication and it consists of the data for the individual figures. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Title | Supporting data for "High-yield parallel fabrication of quantum-dot monolayer single-electron devices displaying Coulomb staircase, contacted by graphene" |
Description | The data used in the accompanying paper are included here. Please see readme file for more details |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/342252 |
Company Name | Abselion |
Description | Abselion develops nanotechnology, including graphene, which is used in biosensors and aims to provide quick detection for medical and hygiene issues. |
Year Established | 2017 |
Impact | 2 paying customers within first months of incorperation. |
Website | http://www.hexagonfab.com |
Description | Cambridge Science Centre - Amazing Graphene |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Organised series of exhibits, demonstrations and talks on graphene in one-day event at Cambridge Science Centre |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.cambridgesciencecentre.org/ |
Description | Cambridge Science Festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Exhibit titled: Mind the (nano) gap: how nanotechnology opens up new routes for biosensing and healthcare. Description: Mind the (Nano) Gap brings together an exciting set of exhibits covering different areas of research in nanoscience, which deals with seeing and manipulating objects at the tiniest of scales - a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair! Nature is an expert nanotechnologist as this is what makes geckos able to climb on walls and lotus leaves that don't get mucky in ponds. In the lab, 'nano' sized gaps at this tiny scale can help researchers control light, electrons, or the flow of molecules to help measure targets ranging from food allergens to neurotransmitters that tell us about mental health, and also enable faster DNA sequencing for personalised medicine. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk/events/mind-nano-gap-how-nanotechnology-opens-new-routes-biose... |
Description | Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Exhibit titled: "Mind the (Nano) Gap: How nanotechnology opens up new routes for biosensing and healthcare" for Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2018 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2018/summer-science-exhibition/ |