Scientists develop world’s first graphene semiconductor in revolutionary computing breakthrough

New Delhi

Scientists have successfully created a working and scalable semiconductor using graphene for the first time.

The achievement opens the door to a potential revolution in computing, introducing a new type of computer with enhanced speed and efficiency compared to the current silicon chip technology. 

The semiconductor chips are increasingly emerging as pivots of the global economy, and are described as the 'new oil' of the technology age. The computing power accessed through microchips, from data centres to smartphones, is required for all parts of the economy.

"Walter de Heer, Regents' Professor of physics at Georgia Tech, led a team of researchers based in Atlanta, Georgia, and Tianjin, China, to produce a graphene semiconductor that is compatible with conventional microelectronics processing methods — a necessity for any viable alternative to silicon," an official readout by the Georgia Institute of Technology said.

Challenges in development of Graphene semiconductors  

Graphene, composed of a single layer of carbon atoms, boasts remarkable strength surpassing that of steel at comparable thicknesses. It is an exceptional electrical conductor and exhibits high resistance to heat and acids.

Despite these advantages, scientists have struggled to develop a working graphene semiconductor that can be controlled to conduct or insulate electricity at will, a crucial element for creating the logic chips powering computers.

The primary obstacle has been the absence of a bandgap—a critical feature in semiconductors allowing for the controlled flow of electrons.

Graphene had shown promise as a semiconductor on a small scale in previous research, but upscaling to practical computer chip sizes proved challenging.

However, recent work led by Walter de Heer and his team at Georgia Tech in Atlanta has marked a significant breakthrough.

How Graphene semiconductors were made?

Using silicon carbide wafers heated to evaporate the silicon before the carbon, the researchers led by Walter de Heer and his team at Georgia Tech in Atlanta successfully created graphene with a bandgap.

They even demonstrated a functional transistor—a fundamental component acting as an on/off switch for the flow of current.

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The process utilised for this breakthrough shares similarities with the techniques employed in creating silicon chips, making it more feasible to scale up.

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"The fact they’re using wafers is important because that’s really, truly scalable," David Carey at the University of Surrey, UK was quoted as saying by The Scientist publication. "You can use all the technology that the whole semiconductor industry is totally comfortable with to scale up this process."

The discovery is significant since it comes at a time when silicon, the material from which nearly all modern electronics are made, is reaching its limit in the face of increasingly faster computing and smaller electronic devices.