AIXTRON Plays Key Roles in Two-Dimensional Nanomaterial Projects

Graphene has the potential to revolutionize electronics in applications such as touch panel displays, lighting and fast transistors. In science and industry, researchers are already looking at further two-dimensional (2D) materials which are also layered in structure just like graphene, known as transition metal dichalgonides (TMDs). AIXTRON, a leading supplier to the semiconductor and lighting industries, is investing in the development of deposition systems for graphene and advanced 2D materials.

AIXTRON is a key partner in several European-based projects aiming to build value-chains and bring these applications towards commercial reality.

“AIXTRON leads the Production Work Package in the Graphene Flagship, founded by the European Union, in which graphene will be produced for a variety of applications ranging from wireless communications to display, sensing and energy storage,” said Dr. Ken Teo, director of nanoinstruments at AIXTRON. “We apply our scaling knowhow in the GRAFOL project to develop large scale equipment for wafer-based graphene and continuous production of foil-based graphene for transistors and transparent conductive films. In the MEM4WIN project, we employ batch-based deposition technology to improve the throughput of graphene production for smart windows.”

“We are also extending our portfolio to include new 2D materials such as boron nitride and dichalcogenides – which are inorganic analogues of graphene or, to put it another way, thin 2D nanomaterials based upon molybdenum and tungsten. In the MoWSeS project, we are applying our extensive technical expertise in complex material deposition to enable those high quality 2D materials to be synthesized for microelectronic applications such as transistors and flash memory,” added Prof. Dr. Michael Heuken, AIXTRON’s vice president of corporate research.

“We are entering into an exciting age of new material development and recognize its potential for expanding into new markets for the company. We are well positioned to leverage our experience for future development,” said Martin Goetzeler, CEO and president of AIXTRON. “Our core competence has always been to provide superior material quality and scaling with the greatest possible process flexibility for industrial applications. I am therefore pleased that our technology is playing a central role in these new projects.”