Quantum Hall Effect Chip

Epitaxial graphene on SiC wafers

Graphene is a crystal plane built up of carbon (C) atoms with sp2 bonding in a honeycomb lattice in which carbon participates with three in-plane bonds while the forth one is unsaturated bond in the perpendicular direction. This crystal structure is responsible for the unique properties of graphene. Graphene on SiC has attracted much interest owing to its potential as a viable candidate for electronic applications and sensors. Since it is epitaxially grown it possesses high quality crystal structure without grain boundaries while can be grown on an area as large as the SiC wafer (150 mm available on the SiC market presently). On axis SiC wafers have two inequivalent faces: Si terminated and C terminated one. The general process conditions of thermal decomposition can be applied to both faces but the growth mechanism is proven to be epitaxial only on the Si face. The graphene growth takes place at a temperature of 2000 o C and argon atmosphere. Graphene area can be from 5×5 mm 2 and up to a 4 inch wafer. Graphensic can provide graphene on all three SiC polytypes: 4H, 6H and 3C.