Ten years have now passed since the kick-off of the Graphene Flagship with European researchers joining forces in developing 2D materials-based processes, material and device models, devices and circuits exploration paving the way towards uptake of this material in various application fields. The 2D Experimental Pilot Line project offers the unique setting for research institutes and industry to jointly develop the essential building blocks for 2D material (2DM) deposition, post-processing and integration evaluation focusing on the domain of sensors, photonics and electronics.
Black Semiconductor, a spin-off and current partner of the Graphene Flagship, secures EUR 254.4 million in funding to launch new semiconductor technology in Europe.
The 2D Experimental Pilot Line (2D-EPL), now in its fourth and final year, is a €20 million project launched to address the challenges of upscaling 2D material production processes for the semiconductor industry. The project helps create a European ecosystem for the integration of 2D materials in applications like sensors, electronics and photonics.
The Graphene Flagship is hosting a symposium from June 11 to 12 at the Town Hall Europe, Brussels, to celebrate the successes of its €20 million 2D Experimental Pilot Line (2D-EPL) project. Representing the first graphene foundry to integrate graphene and other 2D materials into semiconductor devices, the symposium will demonstrate the 2D-EPL’s progress in creating an ecosystem for 2D materials within electronics, photonics and biomedical devices.
Multi project wafer (MPW) runs are a common practice within the semiconductor ecosystem. Universities, R&D centres and start ups, which usually only need a few prototypes and operate with tight budgets, take advantage of this service to obtain devices at an affordable entry point. This is carried out with a mask sharing scheme, where devices with different geometries but shared device architecture are manufactured within the same mask; in this way, everyone gets a few devices but no one needs to purchase more devices than necessary. Now, Graphenea partners with the 2D Experimental Pilot Line (2D-EPL) to offer an MPW run with a novel process flow.
This new approach, developed by scientists from the University of Cambridge and RWTH Aachen University, could mark a real breakthrough for the industrialisation of graphene.
Graphene Flagship researchers have now demonstrated a novel engineering approach to enhance the electrical stability of two-dimensional transistors by carefully tuning the Fermi energy. The results, part of the 2D-Experimental Pilot Line (2D-EPL) project within the Graphene Flagship, have been reported in Nature Electronics.
The 2D Experimental Pilot Line (2D-EPL), a project grown from the Graphene Flagship, has launched its first customisable wafer run targeting sensor applications. Companies, universities and research institutes can include their designs as dies on joint wafers, to test their ideas for devices on a larger scale at relatively low costs.
In a compact comment published in Nature Communications, Graphene Flagship and 2D-EPL researchers outline the most promising fields of applications of two-dimensional (2D) materials, as well as their remaining challenges towards the appearance of high-tech products.
In October 2020, the Graphene Flagship launched a second project funded by the European Commission: the 2D Experimental Pilot Line (2D-EPL). This project is working to establish a European ecosystem for the prototype production of graphene and related material (GRM)-based electronics, photonics and sensors.