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A catalytic alloy approach for graphene on epitaxial SiC on silicon wafers

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Abstract

We introduce a novel approach to the synthesis of high-quality and highly uniform few-layer graphene on silicon wafers, based on solid source growth from epitaxial 3C-SiC films. Using a Ni/Cu catalytic alloy, we obtain a transfer-free bilayer graphene directly on Si(100) wafers, at temperatures potentially compatible with conventional semiconductor processing. The graphene covers uniformly a 2″ silicon wafer, with a Raman ID/ IG band ratio as low as 0.5, indicative of a low defectivity material. The sheet resistance of the graphene is as low as 25 Ω/square, and its adhesion energy to the underlying substrate is substantially higher than transferred graphene. This work opens the avenue for the true wafer-level fabrication of microdevices comprising graphene functional layers. Specifically, we suggest that exceptional conduction qualifies this graphene as a metal replacement for MEMS and advanced on-chip interconnects with ultimate scalability.

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Article Open access 09 February 2016

Md. Sajibul Alam Bhuyan, Md. Nizam Uddin, … Sayed Shafayat Hossain

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We acknowledge Glenn Walker, Philip Tanner, Alan Iacopi, and Anthony Christian for their valuable technical support. The authors acknowledge the support from the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research through the grant AOARD 144045. Dr. Francesca Iacopi is the recipient of a Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (FT120100445).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, 4111, Australia

    Francesca Iacopi, Neeraj Mishra, Benjamin Vaughan Cunning, Dayle Goding & Sima Dimitrijev

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    Ryan Brock & Reinhold H. Dauskardt

  3. Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia

    Barry Wood

  4. Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratories, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, 45433, USA

    John Boeckl

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  1. Francesca Iacopi
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  2. Neeraj Mishra
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Correspondence to Francesca Iacopi.

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This paper has been selected as an Invited Feature Paper.

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Iacopi, F., Mishra, N., Cunning, B.V. et al. A catalytic alloy approach for graphene on epitaxial SiC on silicon wafers. Journal of Materials Research 30, 609–616 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.3

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