By Sofia Aslanidou (predoctoral researcher at IMB-CNM).
Thesis supervisors: Gemma Rius and Philippe Godignon (researchers at PDS, IMB-CNM).
Current innovations in electronics include complementing silicon technology, as size and power limitations arise. Moreover, the establishment of more sustainable and less contaminating production of electronic devices is requisite but is still quite challenging practically. SiC, a wide-bandgap semiconductor, is a great candidate not only due to its superior intrinsic properties but because it allows monolithic integration of high-quality graphene, with a range of potential applications such as FETs, RF power amplifiers, IC, or sensors. In this talk, we propose a two-step process for the fabrication of graphene electronic devices based on selective epitaxial growth on SiC. A pyrolyzed photoresist film (PPF) patterned with photolithography on the SiC surface acts as a high-temperature resistant mask, so that epitaxial graphene grows only in the pre-patterned open areas. Interestingly, PPF can also be used as electrical contact and, according to our preliminary electrical testing, Ohmic behavior was obtained between the graphene and PPF contact. Understanding of the graphene selective growth and PPF electrical interfacing will be the main object of this presentation, and includes a detailed structural analysis based on the combination of various characterization methods, such as SEM, AFM, aberration corrected HR-TEM. Our prove of concept encourages us to further explore this new, simpler, and low-cost, manufacturing method to contribute to highly desirable all-carbon electronics.