• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.67.1-67.1
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• 2012

Graphene has attracted much attention for future nanoelectronics due to its superior electrical properties. Owing to its extremely high carrier mobility and controllable carrier density, graphene is a promising material for practical applications, particularly as a channel layer of high-speed FET. Furthermore, the planar form of graphene is compatible with the conventional top-down CMOS fabrication processes and large-scale synthesis by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process is also feasible. Despite these promising characteristics of graphene, much work must still be done in order to successfully develop graphene FET. One of the key issues is the process technique for gate dielectric formation because the channel mobility of graphene FET is drastically affected by the gate dielectric interface quality. Formation of high quality gate dielectric on graphene is still a challenging. Dirac voltage, the charge neutral point of the device, also strongly depends on gate dielectrics. Another performance killer in graphene FET is source/drain contact resistance, as the contact resistant between metal and graphene S/D is usually one order of magnitude higher than that between metal and silicon S/D. In this presentation, the key issues on graphene-based FET, including organic-inorganic hybrid gate dielectric formation, controlling of Dirac voltage, reduction of source/drain contact resistance, device structure optimization, graphene gate electrode for improvement of gate dielectric reliability, and CVD graphene transfer process issues are addressed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.561-561
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• 2012

Graphene, two dimensional single layer of carbon atoms, has tremendous attention due to its superior property such as fast electron mobility, high thermal conductivity and optical transparency, and also found many applications such as field-effect transistors (FET), energy storage and conversion, optoelectronic device, electromechanical resonators and chemical sensors. Several techniques have been developed to form the graphene. Especially chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a promising process for the large area graphene. For the electrically isolated devices, the graphene should be transfer to insulated substrate from Cu or Ni. However, transferred graphene has serious drawback due to remaining polymeric residue during transfer process which induces the poor device characteristics by impurity scattering and it interrupts the surface functionalization for the sensor application. In this study, we demonstrate the characteristics of solution-gated FET depending on the removal of polymeric residues. The solution-gated FET is operated by the modulation of the channel conductance by applying a gate potential from a reference electrode via the electrolyte, and it can be used as a chemical sensor. The removal process was achieved by several solvents during the transfer of CVD graphene from a copper foil to a substrate and additional annealing process with H2/Ar environments was carried out. We compare the properties of graphene by Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy(AFM), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. Effects of residual polymeric materials on the device performance of graphene FET will be discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.434.2-434.2
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• 2014

We observe enhanced pH response of solution-gated field-effect transistors (SG-FET) having 1D-2D hybrid channel of vertical grown ZnO nanorods grown on CVD graphene (Gr). In recent years, SG-FET based on Gr has received a lot of attention for biochemical sensing applications, because Gr has outstanding properties such as high sensitivity, low detection limit, label-free electrical detection, and so on. However, low-defect CVD Gr has hardly pH responsive due to lack of hydroxyl group on Gr surface. On the other hand, ZnO, consists of stable wurtzite structure, has attracted much interest due to its unique properties and wide range of applications in optoelectronics, biosensors, medical sciences, etc. Especially, ZnO were easily grown as vertical nanorods by hydrothermal method and ZnO nanostructures have higher sensitivity to environments than planar structures due to plentiful hydroxyl group on their surface. We prepared for ZnO nanorods vertically grown on CVD Gr (ZnO nanorods/Gr hybrid channel) and to fabricate SG-FET subsequently. We have analyzed hybrid channel FETs showing transfer characteristics similar to that of pristine Gr FETs and charge neutrality point (CNP) shifts along proton concentration in solution, which can determine pH level of solution. Hybrid channel SG-FET sensors led to increase in pH sensitivity up to 500%, compared to pristine Gr SG-FET sensors. We confirmed plentiful hydroxyl groups on ZnO nanorod surface interact with protons in solution, which causes shifts of CNP. The morphology and electrical characteristics of hybrid channel SG-FET were characterized by FE-SEM and semiconductor parameter analyzer, respectively. Sensitivity and sensing mechanism of ZnO nanorods/Gr hybrid channel FET will be discussed in detail.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.342-348
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• 2023

There has been increasing demand for real-time monitoring of body and ambient temperatures using wearable devices. Graphene-based thermistors have been developed for high-performance flexible temperature sensors. In this study, the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of monolayer graphene was controlled by coating polyethylenimine (PEI) on graphene surfaces to enhance its temperature-sensing performances. Monolayer graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was wet-transferred onto a target substrate. To facilitate the interfacial doping by PEI, the hydrophobic graphene surface was altered to be hydrophilic by oxygen plasma treatments while minimizing defect generation. The effect of PEI doping on graphene was confirmed using a back-gated field-effect transistor (FET). The CVD-grown monolayer graphene coated with PEI exhibited an improved TCR of -0.49(±0.03) %/K in a temperature range of 30~50℃.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.659-659
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• 2013

Recently, graphene has been intensively studied due to the fascinating physical, chemical and electrical properties. It shows high carrier mobility, high current density, and high thermal conductivity compare with conventional semiconductor materials even it has single atomic thickness. Especially, since graphene has fantastic electrical properties many researchers are believed that graphene will be replacing Si based technology. In order to realize it, we need to prepare the large and uniform graphene. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method is the most promising technique for synthesizing large and uniform graphene. Unfortunately, CVD method requires transfer process from metal catalyst. In transfer process, supporting polymer film (Such as poly (methyl methacrylate)) is widely used for protecting graphene. After transfer process, polymer layer is removed by organic solvents. However, it is impossible to remove it completely. These organic residues on graphene surface induce quality degradation of graphene since it disturbs movement of electrons. Thus, in order to get an intrinsic property of graphene completely remove of the organic residues is the most important. Here, we introduce modified wet graphene transfer method without PMMA. First of all, we grow the graphene from Cu foil using CVD method. And then, we deposited several metal films on graphene for transfer layer instead of PMMA. Finally, we fabricate graphene FET devices. Our approaches show low defect density and non-organic residues in comparison with PMMA coated graphene through Raman spectroscopy, SEM and AFM. In addition, clean graphene FET shows intrinsic electrical characteristic and high carrier mobility.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.642-642
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• 2013

Graphene, two dimensional single layer of carbon atoms, has tremendous attention due to its superior property such as high electron mobility, high thermal conductivity and optical transparency. Especially, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown graphene has been used as a promising material for high quality and large-scale graphene film. Unfortunately, although CVD-grown graphene has strong advantages, application of the CVD-grown graphene is limited due to ineffective transfer process that delivers the graphene onto a desired substrate by using polymer support layer such as PMMA(polymethyl methacrylate). The transferred CVD-grown graphene has serious drawback due to remaining polymeric residues generated during transfer process, which induces the poor physical and electrical characteristics by a p-doping effect and impurity scattering. To solve such issue incurred during polymer transfer process of CVD-grown graphene, various approaches including thermal annealing, chemical cleaning, mechanical cleaning have been tried but were not successful in getting rid of polymeric residues. On the other hand, lithographical patterning of graphene is an essential step in any form of microelectronic processing and most of conventional lithographic techniques employ photoresist for the definition of graphene patterns on substrates. But, application of photoresist is undesirable because of the presence of residual polymers that contaminate the graphene surface consistent with the effects generated during transfer process. Therefore, in order to fully utilize the excellent properties of CVD-grown graphene, new approach of transfer and patterning techniques which can avoid polymeric residue problem needs to be developed. In this work, we carried out transfer and patterning process simultaneously with no polymeric residue by using a metal etch mask. The patterned thin gold layer was deposited on CVD-grown graphene instead of photoresists in order to make much cleaner and smoother surface and then transferred onto a desired substrate with PMMA, which does not directly contact with graphene surface. We compare the surface properties and patterning morphology of graphene by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy(AFM) and Raman spectroscopy. Comparison with the effect of residual polymer and metal on performance of graphene FET will be discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.549-549
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• 2012

Early detection of cancer biomarkers in the blood is of vital importance for reducing the mortality and morbidity in a number of cancers. From this point of view, immunosensors based on nanowire (NW) and carbon nanotube (CNT) field-effect transistors (FETs) that allow the ultra-sensitive, highly specific, and label-free electrical detection of biomarkers received much attention. Nevertheless 1D nano-FET biosensors showed high performance, several challenges remain to be resolved for the uncomplicated, reproducible, low-cost and high-throughput nanofabrication. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) graphene and reduced GO (RGO) nanosheets or films find widespread applications such as clean energy storage and conversion devices, optical detector, field-effect transistors, electromechanical resonators, and chemical & biological sensors. In particular, the graphene- and RGO-FETs devices are very promising for sensing applications because of advantages including large detection area, low noise level in solution, ease of fabrication, and the high sensitivity to ions and biomolecules comparable to 1D nano-FETs. Even though a limited number of biosensor applications including chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown graphene film for DNA detection, single-layer graphene for protein detection and single-layer graphene or solution-processed RGO film for cell monitoring have been reported, development of facile fabrication methods and full understanding of sensing mechanism are still lacking. Furthermore, there have been no reports on demonstration of ultrasensitive electrical detection of a cancer biomarker using the graphene- or RGO-FET. Here we describe scalable and facile fabrication of reduced graphene oxide FET (RGO-FET) with the capability of label-free, ultrasensitive electrical detection of a cancer biomarker, prostate specific antigen/${\alpha}$ 1-antichymotrypsin (PSA-ACT) complex, in which the ultrathin RGO channel was formed by a uniform self-assembly of two-dimensional RGO nanosheets, and also we will discuss about the immunosensing mechanism.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.105-105
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• 2012

We have developed a photoemission-assisted plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PAPE-CVD) [1,2], in which photoelectrons emitting from the substrate surface irradiated with UV light ($h{\nu}$=7.2 eV) from a Xe excimer lamp are utilized as a trigger for generating DC discharge plasma as depicted in Fig. 1. As a result, photoemission-assisted plasma can appear just above the substrate surface with a limited interval between the substrate and the electrode (~10 mm), enabling us to suppress effectively the unintended deposition of soot on the chamber walls, to increase the deposition rate, and to decrease drastically the electric power consumption. In case of the deposition of DLC gate insulator films for the top-gate graphene channel FET, plasma discharge power is reduced down to as low as 0.01W, giving rise to decrease significantly the plasma-induced damage on the graphene channel [3]. In addition, DLC thickness can be precisely controlled in an atomic scale and dielectric constant is also changed from low ${\kappa}$ for the passivation layer to high ${\kappa}$ for the gate insulator. On the other hand, negative electron affinity (NEA) of a hydrogen-terminated diamond surface is attractive and of practical importance for PAPECVD, because the diamond surface under PAPE-CVD with H2-diluted (about 1%) CH4 gas is exposed to a lot of hydrogen radicals and therefore can perform as a high-efficiency electron emitter due to NEA. In fact, we observed a large change of discharge current between with and without hydrogen termination. It is noted that photoelectrons are emitted from the SiO2 (350 nm)/Si interface with 7.2-eV UV light, making it possible to grow few-layer graphene on the thick SiO2 surface with no transition layer of amorphous carbon by means of PAPE-CVD without any metal catalyst.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.195-195
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• 2012

Recently, graphene based solution-gated field-effect transistors (SGFETs) have been received a great attention in biochemical sensing applications. Graphene and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) possess various advantages such as high sensitivity, low detection limit, label-free electrical detection, and ease of fabrication due to their 2D nature and large sensing area compared to 1D nanomaterials- based nanobiosensors. Therefore, graphene or RGO -based SGFET is a good potential candidate for sensitive detection of protons (H+ ions) which can be applied as the transducer in various enzymatic or cell-based biosensing applications. However, reports on detection of H+ ions using graphene or RGO based SGFETs have been still limited. According to recent reports, clean graphene grown by CVD or exfoliation is electrochemically insensitive to changes of H+ concentration in solution because its surface does not have terminal functional groups that can sense the chemical potential change induced by varying surface charges of H+ on CVD graphene surface. In this work, we used RGO -SGFETs having oxygen-containing functional groups such as hydroxyl (OH) groups that effectively interact with H+ ions for expectation of increasing pH sensitivity. Additionally, we also investigate RGO based SGFETs for bio-sensing applications. Hydroloytic enzymes were introduced for sensing of biomolecular interaction on the surface of RGO -SGFET in which enzyme and substrate are acetylcholinesterase (AchE) and acetylcholine (Ach), respectively. The increase in H+ generated through enzymatic reaction of hydrolysis of Ach by AchE immobilized on RGO channel in SGFET could be monitored by the change in the drain-source current (Ids).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.119-119
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• 2011

This study examined the synthesis of large area graphene and the change of its characteristics depending on the ratio of CH4/H2 by using the thermal CVD methods and performed the experiments to control the electron-hole conduction and Dirac-point of graphene by using chemical doping methods. Firstly, with regard to the characteristics of the large area graphene depending on the ratio of CH4/H2, hydrophobic characteristics of the graphene changed to hydrophilic characteristics as the ratio of CH4/H2 reduces. The angle of contact also increased to 78$^{\circ}$ from 58$^{\circ}$. According to the results of Raman spectroscopy showing the degree of defect, the ratio of I(D)/I(G) increases to 0.42% from 0.25% and the surface resistance also increased to 950 ${\Omega}$ from 750 ${\Omega}$/sq. As for the graphene synthesis at the high temperature of 1,000$^{\circ}$ by using CH4/H2 in a Cu-Foil, the possibility of graphene formation was determined as a function of the ratio of H2 included in the fixed quantity of CH4 as per specifications of every equipment. It was observed that the excessive amount of H2 prevented graphene from forming, as extra H-atoms and molecules activated the reaction to C-bond of graphene. Secondly, in the experiment for the electron-hole conduction and the Dirac-point of graphene using the chemical doping method, the shift of Dirac-point and the change in the electron-hole conduction were observed for both the N-type (PEI) and the P-type (Diazonium) dopings. The ID-VG results show that, for the N-type (PEI) doped graphene, Dirac-point shifted to the left (-voltage direction) by 90V at an hour and by 130 V at 2 hours respectively, compared to the pristine graphene. Carrier mobility was also reduced by 1,600 cm2/Vs (1 hour) and 1,100 cm2/Vs (2 hours), compared to the maximum hole mobility of the pristine graphene.