Material scientist Francesca Iacopi. Supplied.

Researchers are claiming world-first technology developed at Griffith University will harness the remarkable properties of graphene and could launch the next generation of mass produced, low-cost micro-devices.

Dr Francesca Iacopi’s novel micro-fabrication process enables production-scale manufacturing of a material companies can use to commercially produce sensor devices which are biocompatible, chemically resistant and highly sensitive.

“We believe this process will change the way we live by providing the ultimate in device miniaturisation,” says Dr Iacopi, from Griffith University’s Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre.

“It will influence a lot of different sectors because many modern applications relying on micro and nano-devices will be able to advance by incorporating this technology,” says Dr Iacopi, from Griffith University’s Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre.

“For example, medicine is just one area where this technology can be applied. Someone with diabetes could have a nanochip sitting on their skin -– mass produced with the help of our micro-fabrication process — continuously monitoring their blood, and any changes can be relayed directly to a doctor.”

First isolated in the laboratory about a decade ago, graphene is pure carbon and one of the thinnest, lightest and strongest materials known.

A supreme conductor of electricity and heat, much has been written about its mechanical, electrical, thermal and optical properties and the possibilities with the fabrication of new and advanced micro-devices.

However, progress so far has been slow due to the difficulty in synthesising high quality graphene on to Silicon wafers, which would enable cost-effective mass production of such devices.

That problem has now been overcome.

Working with three PhDs, a postdoctorate, national and international collaborators Dr Iacopi has developed:

a low temperature process to synthesise graphene by using a metal alloy catalyst which produces a continuous, high quality, controllable graphene film;

a strategy for patterning graphene in such a way that it will grow only on a pre-patterned Silicon Carbide (SiC) layer on Silicon.

“Until now, high quality graphene was restricted to the use of expensive SiC wafers or the use of complicated transfer procedures to Silicon wafers. A cheaper substrate and a simpler methodology was badly needed to ensure the micro-devices would be cost-competitive,” says Dr Iacopi.

“At Griffith, we were the first develop a method for depositing a very high quality thin layer of SiC on to 300mm Si wafers.

“This work is still very early but the prospects are very exciting and broad-ranging.”

Dr Iacopi and her team have already begun seeking industry partners to leverage the technology in an industrial product.

Next month, Dr Iacopi will travel to Seattle in the US to address the 4th International Symposium on Graphene Devices.

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