The development of silicon semiconductor technology has produced breakthroughs in electronics—from the microprocessor in the late 1960s to early 1970s, to automation, computers and smartphones—by downscaling the physical size of devices and wires to the nanometre regime. Now, graphene and related two-dimensional (2D) materials offer prospects of unprecedented advances in device performance at the atomic limit, and a synergistic combination of 2D materials with silicon chips promises a heterogeneous platform to deliver massively enhanced potential based on silicon technology. Integration is achieved via three-dimensional monolithic construction of multifunctional high-rise 2D silicon chips, enabling enhanced performance by exploiting the vertical direction and the functional diversification of the silicon platform for applications in opto-electronics and sensing. Here we review the opportunities, progress and challenges of integrating atomically thin materials with silicon-based nanosystems, and also consider the prospects for computational and non-computational applications. Progress in integrating atomically thin two-dimensional materials with silicon-based technology is reviewed, together with the associated opportunities and challenges, and a roadmap for future applications is presented.

Graphene and two-dimensional materials for silicon technology.

Graphene research has prospered impressively in the past few years, and promising applications such as high-frequency transistors, magnetic field sensors, and flexible optoelectronics are just waiting for a scalable and cost-efficient fabrication technology to produce high-mobility graphene. Although significant progress has been made in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and epitaxial growth of graphene, the carrier mobility obtained with these techniques is still significantly lower than what is achieved using exfoliated graphene. We show that the quality of CVD-grown graphene depends critically on the used transfer process, and we report on an advanced transfer technique that allows both reusing the copper substrate of the CVD growth and making devices with mobilities as high as 350,000 cm2 V–1 s–1, thus rivaling exfoliated graphene.

Ultrahigh-mobility graphene devices from chemical vapor deposition on reusable copper

Integrated circuits based on complementary metal-oxide–semiconductors (CMOS) are at the heart of the technological revolution of the past 40 years, enabling compact and low-cost microelectronic circuits and imaging systems However, the diversification of this platform into applications other than microcircuits and visible-light cameras has been impeded by the difficulty to combine semiconductors other than silicon with CMOS Here, we report the monolithic integration of a CMOS integrated circuit with graphene, operating as a high-mobility phototransistor We demonstrate a high-resolution, broadband image sensor and operate it as a digital camera that is sensitive to ultraviolet, visible and infrared light (300–2,000 nm) The demonstrated graphene–CMOS integration is pivotal for incorporating 2D materials into the next-generation microelectronics, sensor arrays, low-power integrated photonics and CMOS imaging systems covering visible, infrared and terahertz frequencies Graphene–quantum dots on CMOS sensor offers broadband imaging

Broadband image sensor array based on graphene–CMOS integration

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted tremendous research interest since the breakthrough of graphene. Their unique optical, electronic, and mechanical properties hold great potential for harnessing them as key components in novel applications for electronics and optoelectronics. Their atomic thickness and exposed huge surface even make them highly designable and manipulable, leading to the extensive application potentials. What's more, after acquiring the qualification for being the candidate for next-generation devices, the assembly of 2D materials monomers into mass or ordered structure is also of great importance, which will determine their ultimate industrialization. By designing the monomers and regulating their assembling behavior, the exploration of 2D materials toward the next-generation circuits can be spectacularly achieved. In this review, we will first overview the emerging 2D materials and then offer a clear guideline of varied physical and chemical strategies for tuning their properties. Furthermore, assembly strategies of 2D materials will also be included. Finally, challenges and outlooks in this promising field are featured on the basis of its current progress.

Exploring Two-Dimensional Materials toward the Next-Generation Circuits: From Monomer Design to Assembly Control

Graphene has contributed to the fabrication of sensitive sensors and biosensors due to its physical and electrochemical properties. This review discusses the role of graphene and graphene related materials for the improvement of the analytical performance of sensors and biosensors. This paper also provides an overview of recent graphene based sensors and biosensors (2012–2016), comparing their analytical performance for application in clinical, environmental, and food sciences research, and comments on future and interesting research trends in this field.

Graphene based sensors and biosensors

The high-quality and low-cost of the graphene preparation method decide whether graphene is put into the applications finally. Enormous efforts have been devoted to understand and optimize the CVD process of graphene over various d-block transition metals (e.g. Cu, Ni and Pt). Here we report the growth of uniform high-quality single-layer, single-crystalline graphene flakes and their continuous films over p-block elements (e.g. Ga) liquid films using ambient-pressure chemical vapor deposition. The graphene shows high crystalline quality with electron mobility reaching levels as high as 7400 cm2 V−1s−1 under ambient conditions. Our employed growth strategy is ultra-low-loss. Only trace amounts of Ga are consumed in the production and transfer of the graphene and expensive film deposition or vacuum systems are not needed. We believe that our research will open up new territory in the field of graphene growth and thus promote its practical application.

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High-mobility graphene on liquid p-block elements by ultra-low-loss CVD growth

Graphene/silicon CMOS hybrid integrated circuits (ICs) should provide powerful functions which combines the ultra-high carrier mobility of graphene and the sophisticated functions of silicon CMOS ICs. But it is difficult to integrate these two kinds of heterogeneous devices on a single chip. In this work a low temperature process is developed for integrating graphene devices onto silicon CMOS ICs for the first time and a high performance graphene/CMOS hybrid Hall IC is demonstrated. Signal amplifying/process ICs are manufactured via commercial 0.18 um silicon CMOS technology and graphene Hall elements (GHEs) are fabricated on top of the passivation layer of the CMOS chip via a low-temperature micro-fabrication process. The sensitivity of the GHE on CMOS chip is further improved by integrating the GHE with the CMOS amplifier on the Si chip. This work not only paves the way to fabricate graphene/Si CMOS Hall ICs with much higher performance than that of conventional Hall ICs, but also provides a general method for scalable integration of graphene devices with silicon CMOS ICs via a low-temperature process.

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Graphene/Si CMOS Hybrid Hall Integrated Circuits

Multifunctional graphene magnetic/hydrogen sensors are constructed for the first time through a simple microfabrication process. The as-fabricated graphene sensor may act as excellent Hall magnetic...

Zishen Li

Papers

High-mobility graphene on liquid p-block elements by ultra-low-loss CVD growth

Graphene/Si CMOS Hybrid Hall Integrated Circuits

Multifunctional graphene sensors for magnetic and hydrogen detection.