Scalable Production of Highly-Reliable Graphene-Based Microchips

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Solid State Physics
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Graphene's unique electronic properties offer potential for advanced telecommunication and sensing devices.
• Graphene integrated circuits face reliability challenges at the wafer scale due to material defects, particularly at interfaces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate highly reliable graphene-based microchips on 200mm wafers.
• To demonstrate the effectiveness of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as a gate dielectric for improving graphene transistor stability.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of graphene transistors and frequency doublers on 200mm wafers using a multi-project wafer tape-out.
• Utilizing multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as the gate dielectric for graphene transistors.
• Characterization of transistor reliability through cycling tests and analysis of hysteresis and parameter shifts.

Main Results:

• Graphene transistors with hBN gate dielectrics exhibited record-breaking reliability.
• Ultra-low hysteresis (<20 mV) and negligible shifts in on-state current and charge neutrality point were observed even after 2100 cycles.
• The hBN/graphene transistors showed significantly superior stability compared to devices with metal-oxide dielectrics (HfO2, Al2O3).

Conclusions:

• Multilayer hBN is a highly effective gate dielectric for enhancing the reliability of graphene transistors.
• The developed fabrication process is scalable for mass production of stable graphene-based microchips.
• These findings pave the way for reliable graphene electronics in telecommunication and sensing applications.