Graphene-on-SiC - ISOM

TECHNOLOGY GRAPHENE
<strong>Graphene</strong>-on-SiC
heads from lab to fab
To fulfil the tremendous potential of graphene, high-quality material must
be shipped in significant volumes. One supplier looking to do just that
is Graphensic, which has developed graphene-on SiC products for
making structures for metrology, high-speed transistors and biosensors.
Company founders Rositza Yakimova, Mikael Syväjärvi, and
Tihomir Iakimov detail their progress.
It may smack of hype to refer to graphene as the wonder
material, but it is an accolade that is richly deserved: this
allotrope of carbon, which is based on atomic sheets, is
destined to make massive improvements in numerous areas,
including the construction of lighter, stronger airplanes, the
manufacture of ultra-fast batteries and the production of new or
better electronics.
the pioneers of this material are andre Geim and konstantin
Novoselov from the University of manchester, Uk, who
reported their ground-breaking discovery of this new
form of carbon in 2004. since then they have shot to
fame, netting a Nobel prize in 2010 for their efforts.
following their discovery, research into graphene
has mushroomed, with commercial interest in
this material taking off. however, graphene is
never going to fulfil its potential as a wonder
material that can serve mankind in many
ways unless it can be manufactured by
industrial processes in high volumes.
at Graphensic aB, a spin-off of Linköping
University, sweden, we are one of a handful of
companies addressing this. We produce high-quality films
of graphene on sic substrates with a unique manufacturing
method involving high-temperature processing.
Cubic SiC used by
<strong>Graphene</strong>sic
Graphensic’s origins
for us, forming our company was a natural evolution. When
we had been working at Linköping University, we received an
increasing number of requests for both material and research
collaborations. these requests eventually exceeded those we
could manage within unfinanced research collaborations, and
at that point in time it was an obvious step to form a company.
We did this in late 2011. We manufacture materials by direct
sales and through development projects aiming to build up the
company through customer sales.
26 www.compoundsemiconductor.net April/May 2013