ITWire

Graphene wafers can be formed using the same technology used for silicon. IBM researchers have demonstrated that this approach works at least as well as graphene extracted from natural graphite.

Central to the speed improvement achieved by IBM is the use of a polymer layer between the graphene and the oxide gate insulator. This prevents electrons in the graphene from being scattered by the oxide.

The nature of the material means graphene transistors are not suited to digital applications, and so the technology is unlikely to replace silicon as the bedrock of our computers and other digital devices.

The research, funded by the US government's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is aimed at the creation of analogue semiconductors for next-generation communications devices.