• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.371.2-371.2
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• 2016

Graphene electronics is one of the promising technologies for the next generation electronic devices due to the outstanding properties such as conductivity, high carrier mobility, mechanical, and optical properties along with extended applications using 2 dimensional heterostructures. However, large contact resistance between metal and graphene is one of the major obstacles for commercial application of graphene electronics. In order to achieve low contact resistance, numerous researches have been conducted such as gentle plasma treatment, ultraviolet ozone (UVO) treatment, annealing treatment, and one-dimensional graphene edge contact. In this report, we suggest a fabrication method of one-dimensional graphene metal edge contact without using graphene exfoliation. Graphene is grown on Cu foil by low pressure chemical vapor deposition. Then, the graphene is transferred on $SiO_2/Si$ wafer. The patterning of graphene channel and metal electrode is done by photolithography. $O_2$ plasma is applied to etch out the exposed graphene and then Ti/Au is deposited. As a result, the one-dimensional edge contact geometry is built between metal and graphene. The contact resistance of the fabricated one-dimensional metal-graphene edge contact is compared with the contact resistance of vertically stacked conventional metal-graphene contact.

• Carbon letters
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.171-174
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• 2013

The high quality contact between graphene and the metal electrode is a crucial factor in achieving the high performance of graphene transistors. However, there is not sufficient research about contact resistance reduction methods to improve the junction of metal-graphene. In this paper, we propose a new method to decrease the contact resistance between graphene and metal using directly grown graphene over a metal surface. The study found that the grown graphene over copper, as an intermediate layer between the copper and the transferred graphene, reduces contact resistance, and that the adhesion strength between graphene and metal becomes stronger. The results confirmed the contact resistance of the metal-graphene of the proposed structure is nearly half that of the conventional contact structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.294.2-294.2
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• 2016

Graphene, a sigle atomic layered structure of graphite, has drawn many scientific interests for attractive future electronics and optoelectronics beyond silicon-based technology because of its robust physical, optical, and electrical properties. But high metal-graphene contact resistance prevents the successful integration of high speed graphene devices and circuits, although pristine graphene is known to have a novel carrier transport property. Meanwhile, in the recently reported metal-graphene contact studies, there are many attempts to reduce the metal-graphene contact resistance, such as doping and one-dimensional edge contact. However, there is a lack of quantitative analysis of the edge contact scheme through variously designed patterns with different metal contact. We first investigate the effets of edge contact (metal-graphene interface) on the contact resistance in terms of edge pattern design through patterning (photolithography + plasma etching) and electral measurements. Where the contact resistance is determined using the transfer length method (TLM). Finally, we research the role of metal-kind (Palladium, Copper, and Tianium) on the contact resistance through the edge-contacted devices, eventually minimizing contact resistance down to approximately $23{\Omega}{\cdot}{\mu}m$ at room temperature (approximately $19{\Omega}{\cdot}{\mu}m$ at 100 K).

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.117-120
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• 2019

Graphene is recognized as a promising material for silicon photonics, since it has a wide optical-window that entirely covers the optical communication wavelength region ($1.3{\sim}1.6-{\mu}m$) and extremely high-carrier mobility that makes it possible to fabricate the high-speed photodetectors. However, the maximum absorbance of monolayer graphene is only 2.3%, which limits the photoresponse characteristics of graphene photodetectors. As a result, a low photoresponsivity of graphene photodetector is a critical issue limiting the use of graphene photodetectors in the optical communications field. In this paper, we investigated effects of optically-modulated metal-graphene contact on the photoresponsivity of graphene photodetectors. The optical modulation of the contact resistance mainly determined the photoresponse characteristics of graphene photodetectors. The Ni-contact graphene photodetector which has a characteristic of the significant optical modulation of metal-graphene contact showed a higher photoresponsivity than the Pd-contact device. This work will provide a way to improve the photoresponse characteristics of graphene-based photodetector and contribute to the development of high-speed/high-responsivity graphene photodetector.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.55-61
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• 2017

Graphene, with a carrier mobility achieving up to $140,000cm^2/Vs$ at room temperature, makes it an ideal material for application in semiconductor devices. However, when the metal comes in contact with the graphene sheet, an energy barrier forms at the metal-graphene interface, resulting in a drastic reduction of the carrier mobility of graphene. In this review, the various methods of forming metal-graphene covalent contacts to lower the contact resistance are discussed. Furthermore, the graphene sheet in the area of metal contact can be cut in certain patterns, also discussed in this review, which provides a more efficient approach to forming covalent contacts, ultimately reducing the contact resistance for the realization of high-performance graphene devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.382.1-382.1
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• 2014

Graphene field-effect transistors (GFET) is one of candidates for future high speed electronic devices since graphene has unique electronic properties such as high Fermi velocity (vf=10^6 m/s) and carrier mobility ($15,000cm^2/V{\cdot}s$) [1]. Although the contact property between graphene and metals is a crucial element to design high performance electronic devices, it has not been clearly identified. Therefore, we need to understand characteristics of graphene/metal contact in the GFET. Recently, it is theoretically known that graphene on metal can be doped by presence of interface dipole layer induced by charge transfer [2]. It notes that doping type of graphene under metal is determined by difference of work function between graphene and metal. In this study, we present the GFET fabricated by contact metals having high work function (Pt, Ni) for p-doping and low work function (Ta, Cr) for n-doping. The results show that asymmetric conductance depends on work function of metal because the interfacial dipole is locally formed between metal electrodes and graphene. It induces p-n-p or n-p-n junction in the channel of the GFET when gate bias is applied. In addition, we confirm that charge transfer regions are differently affected by gate electric field along gate length.

• Carbon letters
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.162-170
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• 2013

The performance of graphene-based electronic devices is critically affected by the quality of the graphene-metal contact. The understanding of graphene-metal is therefore critical for the successful development of graphene-based electronic devices, especially field-effect-transistors. Here, we provide a review of the peculiar properties of graphene-metal contacts, including work function pinning, the charge transport mechanism, the impact of the process on the contract resistance, and other factors.

• 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.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.60-64
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• 2023

In this study, the electrical contact resistance characteristics between graphene and metals, which is one of important factors for the performance of graphene-based devices, were compared. High-quality graphene was synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, and Al, Cu, Ni, and Ti as electrode materials were deposited on the graphene surface with equal thickness of 50 nm. The contact resistances of graphene transferred to SiO₂/Si substrates and metals were measured by the transfer length method (TLM), and the average contact resistances of Al, Cu, Ni, and Ti were found to be 345 Ω, 553 Ω, 110 Ω, and 174 Ω, respectively. It was found that Ni and Ti, which form chemical bonds with graphene, have relatively lower contact resistances compared to Al and Cu, which have physical adsorption properties. The results of this study on the electrical properties between graphene and metals are expected to contribute to the realization of high-performance graphene-based devices including electronics, optoelectronic devices, and sensors by forming low contact resistance with electrodes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.293-293
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• 2014

The applicability of graphene has been demonstrated in the electronic fields. But, high performance of graphene is limited by the contact resistance (Rc) at the metal-graphene interface. Recently, Rc was found to be improved by forming edge-contacted graphene via theoretical simulation. Based on the differences between the surface and edge contacts at the M-G interface, we demonstrate "edge-contacted" graphene through the use of a controlled plasma processing technique that generates the edge structure of the bond and significantly reduces the contact resistance. The contact resistance attained by using pre-plasma processing was of $270{\Omega}{\cdot}{\mu}m$. Mechanisms of pre-plasma process leading to low Rc was revealed by SEM and Raman spectroscopy. In the end, controlled pre-plasma processing enabled to fabricate CVD-graphene field effect transistors with an enhanced adhesion and improved carrier mobility.