Scalable High Performance 1D Metal-Insulator-Graphene Diodes for High Frequency Applications Based on 2D Materials from Chemical Vapor Deposition

• Applicant: Dr. Zhenxing Wang
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering ; Synthesis and Properties of Functional Materials
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391996624

Within this project a novel high performance 1D metal-insulator-graphene (MIG) diode based on 2D materials and a corresponding scalable process will be developed. The metal, insulator, and graphene layers will be arranged laterally. The graphene-insulator junction will be formed at the 1D edge of the graphene. One of the main advantages of this 1D diode geometry is the reduced capacitance compared to the state-of-the-art for thin-film technology based diodes, i.e. conventional vertical metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes. Besides, the current density in such a 1D geometry is much higher. These two advantages ensure that the 1D diode is a very promising candidate for future terahertz applications because of the low derived resistance-capacitance (RC) product.To further improve the performance of the diode, the monolayer graphene will be encapsulated between two hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layers. The hBN layer preserves the high mobility of graphene due to nature of the similar hexagonal structure as graphene and the weak van der Waals interaction with graphene. hBN also properly isolates graphene from the environment, which is critical for the long term stability of the devices and circuits.To realize the large scale process for the 1D diode, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) will be utilized to produce both of the 2D materials, graphene and hBN. The quality of these 2D materials determines the delivery of the high performance of the diode. Therefore the scientific problems for CVD growth of 2D materials will need to be intensively investigated and afterwards solved with alignment to the device performance. To show the application potential of such diode, the large scale high performance 1D diodes for high frequency application, such as radiofrequency power detection or photo detection, will also be demonstrated within this project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: China
• Partner Organisation: National Natural Science Foundation of China
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Libo Gao