Graphene Semiconductor | Working Transistor | Superior to Silicon | Bandgap Challenges | Manufacturing Inference

Rewrite:

Revolutionary Graphene Invention: A Working Semiconductor with Potential to Outpower Silicon Chips

Recent technologic advancements show that graphene can be used to construct a working semiconductor, successfully creating potential for computers with superior speed and efficiency to modern silicon chips. Coming from a single layer of carbon atoms and therefore much more readily available than steel with comparative thickness, graphene exhibits excellent electrical conducting properties and is highly resistant to heat and acid.

Until this point in time, efforts to construct and control graphene to act as a successful semiconductor have been stifled by intrinsic characteristics. Hence, in order for higher-function semiconductors to be created, the sought-after bandgap, which constitutes a gap between electron energy levels to facilitate and control current, needed to be harnessed.

Georgia Tech’s Groundbreaking Effort: Introducing the Bandgap
The team at Georgia Tech, headed by Professor Walter de Heer, has succeeded in creating a working, scalable graphene semiconductor for the first time. The scientists began constructing their device on a silicon carbide substrate chip produced through heating wafers of silicon carbide and subsequently allowing the silicon atoms to evaporate, leaving behind a sheet of graphene on the wafer’s surface. Promising results soon followed, with the graphene semiconductor shown to outperform its silicon-based predecessor in the realm of electrical conductivity.

The Tranistor Breakthrough: How It Works
The research yielded principles that can be applied to building transistors, switches that can either prevent or permit electricity to flow throughout. De Heer’s group revealed that it is possible to establish these transistors and construct scaleable graphene chips by using techniques akin to those employed in creating silicon chips.

Moore’s Law and the Long-Awaited Future
These new findings could catapult the development of logic chips for computers and reinvigorate progress that has been ravaged by the decline of Moore’s Law in recent years. Regulation of electrons has become increasingly challenging and unreliable at a microscopic level, thus calling for new approaches. Even with the impressive potential of graphene, commercialising the new semiconductor will be yet another hurdle to master due to the unexpected nature of the innovation, alongside the established infrastructure of silicon.

Conclusion
Although it may still take some time before replacing old laptops with those powered by graphene chips, this breakthrough highlights the significant possibilities for future technological and computer systems, open to a world of enhanced speed and efficiency from the single-layer carbon atom extraordinary electrical conductor.