Patrick Gibson
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jun Jiao, MME
Project Title: Investigation of Low Temperature Growth Parameters for Scalable Graphene Films Suitable for Graphene-Based Silicon-CMOS Applications
Project Abstract: Following Intel co-founder Gordon Moore’s prediction, the semiconductor industry has doubled the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits (ICs) every two years for more than four decades. While this trend continues to be a unique feature of the semiconductor industry, CMOS-based ICs scaling toward single-digit nanometer dimensions are facing tremendous challenges caused by the quantum limit, current leakage, thermal constraints, signal/power integrity, and device parameter variability. In order to sustain silicon-CMOS technology and achieve deeper nanometer scaling with improved device performance, attention in the semiconductor field has turned to graphene. In 2015, the Executive Summary Report of International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) named graphene a promising “ballistic conductor” that could be a CMOS-compatible material for three-dimensional (3D) device architecture in the new era of “3D power scaling.” Graphene is predicted to have the greatest impact on geometric scaling due to its high mobility, which is desirable in CMOS field effect transistor (MOSFET) channels. In this Intel-funded project, we plan to develop a scalable technique for low-temperature (within 400–600C) growth of graphene with controlled properties by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. A systematic experimental investigation will be carried out. The results will be comparatively analyzed, and the correlations of the synergistic effects among the growth parameters will be established. This will lead to the identification of optimal parameters for direct deposition of graphene films that could be readily integrated with the silicon and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process for nanoscaled electronic fabrication. The students, who are supported by the Undergraduate Research Mentorship Program (URMP), will be involved in growing graphene and participating in design, fabrication and measurement of related nanodevices. The URMP students will also learn how to operate an inductively coupled chemical vapor deposition (ICPCVD) reactor and other thermal CVD reactors for graphene growth, the electron microscopes for imaging, and the probe station for electrical measurements.