Destination 2D, a Milpitas startup which has graphene inventor and Nobel laureate Konstantin Novoselov (pictured) as its chief scientist, has made graphene interconnects for ICs on a CMOS process.

Destination 2D CTO Kaustav Banerjee says the company’s doped graphene sheets have current densities 100 times as dense as copper.

IMG_0271-150x150.webpIt is the only company to demonstrate graphene deposition directly on top of transistors rather than growing the interconnects separately and then attaching them to the chip.

The company uses a pressure-assisted direct deposition technique which uses a sacrificial metal film such as nickel. Carbon is forced through the film and  recombines into clean multilayer graphene underneath.

 

After the graphene interconnects are patterned, the graphene layers are doped to reduce the resistivity and boost their current-carrying capacity. 

The Destination 2D team uses a doping technique called intercalation, where the doping atoms are diffused between graphene sheets.

The doping atoms can vary—examples include iron chloride, bromine, and lithium. Once implanted, the dopants donate electrons to the graphene sheets, allowing higher current densities. 

Destination 2D has demonstrated the technique at the chip level, and builtn tools for wafer-scale deposition that can be implemented in CMOS fabs.