Semiconductor production with robotic arms, symbolic image (Photo: freepik, Phonlamaistudio)
Atlanta/Tianjin – Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology (GaTech) may have found the successor to silicon in semiconductor technology: epitaxial graphene. Also known as epigraphs, the graphene layer forms spontaneously on a silicon carbide crystal, a semiconductor used in high-performance electronics.
Faster and less useless heat
“It was clear from the start that graphene might be miniaturized much more than silicon, making much smaller devices possible. At the same time, it offers far higher processing speeds and less useless heat is generated,” says GaTech researcher Walter de Heer. In principle, more components might be packed on a single graphene chip than when using silicon. The technology is also compatible with conventional microelectronics manufacturing, a requirement for any viable alternative to silicon.
To create the new nanoelectronics platform, researchers designed a modified form of epigraphs on a silicon carbide crystal substrate. In collaboration with researchers from the Tianjin International Center for Nanoparticles and Nanosystems at the University of Tianjin the scientists have produced electronics-grade silicon carbide chips. De Heers created the graphene in the laboratory at Georgia Tech in newly developed ovens.
Electrons create nanostructures
The researchers used electron beam lithography. This is a method commonly used in microelectronics to write nanostructures in graphene and weld their edges to the silicon carbide chips. This process mechanically stabilizes and seals the edges of the graphene, which would otherwise react with oxygen and other gases and destroy the chip.
The electrical charges the team observed on the graphene edges are similar to photons in an optical fiber traveling tens of thousands of nanometers without scattering. This means that all the electricity can be used for the work of the future chips. Graphene electrons in previous technologies might only travel regarding ten nanometers before hitting small imperfections and scattering in different directions.
Those: www.pressetext.com
(pte011/23.12.2022/13:30)
