Research Seminar – Graphene on Silicon: hype or hope?

Wednesday September 6, 11 am
Room 2105 Physical Sciences Building, Flinders University

 

Graphene has been hailed as a wonder material since its impressive set of properties was unveiled by A.Geim and K.Novoselov, Physics Nobel Prize winners in 2010. Its specific atomic –thin sp2 carbon structure grants exceptional electrical and thermal conduction properties, outstanding electronic mobilities, optical and plasmonic properties, as well as an excellent mechanical resilience. It holds the ultimate promise of miniaturization and energy –efficiency for micro- and nanoelectronics. So, what is holding us up from producing a microelectronic chip or portable display device using graphene?

 

The answer is the slow progress along the winding but very necessary road of industrial research and development. Typically 10 to 20 years intensive R&D work are needed for transforming a fundamentally new concept or material into a usable product, during which Academic and Industrial researchers need to work in close collaboration.

Through her own example of how her research group was able to realize graphene on silicon, Prof. Iacopi will illustrate the stringent requirements in order to realize this promise, her research group have pioneered an avenue to fill this fundamental gap. As no novel methodologies come without complexities, she will review the associated challenges and the broad perspectives. Most importantly she will review the long road and the stringent requirements for a novel technology to be uptaken in semiconductor industrial processes.

 

Professor Francesca Iacopi is the Australian Institute of Physics’ Undergraduate Physics Lecturer for 2017. She has 20 years’ experience in semiconductor research and development across Industry and Academia. She is Professor of Electronics in the Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney. Throughout her research career she has authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications and holds 8 granted patents. She achieved international reputation for her contributions to the ITRS roadmap of materials and processes for advanced technologies across the area of devices, interconnects and packaging. In particular, her seminal work on low-k dielectrics for interconnects over the 1999-2009 decade has guided the industrial uptake and implementation of porous dielectrics into current semiconductor chips. More recently, her invention of a process to obtain graphene directly patterned on silicon substrates led her to a Global Innovation Award in Washington DC, May 2014.

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