LONDON — Specialist semiconductor wafer supplier IQE plc (Cardiff, Wales) has announced that its Pennsylvania based operation is to take part in the development of carbon-based, radio-frequency integrated circuits as part of the U.S. government's Carbon Electronics for RF Applications (CERA) program.
The work, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is seeking to exploit the properties of graphene to create components that will enable unprecedented capabilities in high-bandwidth communications, imaging, and radar systems.
IQE is part of a team consisting of commercial, university and military research establishments chartered under the CERA program to develop wafer-scale graphene synthesis approaches focused on enabling ultra-high-speed, low-power graphene-channel field effect transistors (FETs).
The CERA program will culminate in a demonstration of high performance W-band (greater than 90-GHz) low-noise amplifiers, making use of graphene transistors on wafers with diameters greater than or equal to 8 inches and with cross wafer yields of better than 90 percent.
Graphene has been referred to as a "semi-metal" or "zero-gap semiconductor" and comprises a one-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The program team proposes to use advanced epitaxial processes to grow an organized layer of bandgap-engineered graphene carbon crystals on silicon-based wafers to create more efficient, scalable, and cheaper-to-manufacture transistors.
"The use of highly advanced materials such as graphene is essential in developing components for the next generation of sophisticated military imaging systems and high-bandwidth communications systems," said Steve Gergar, vice president and general manager of IQE's Bethlehem, Pennsylvania business.
The CERA program started in July 2008 and is expected to be completed by September 2012.
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