Aixtron - Page 3

Aixtron announced today that Osaka University in Japan placed an order for a 4" AIXTRON BM Pro system. The University will use the new equipment to produce carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene structures for bio-sensors. The aim is to combine graphene field-effect transistors with organic chemicals, such as antibodies, antigens and aptamers to allow electrical detection of specific proteins. The BM Pro system will also be used to produce carbon nanotubes for micro-electromechanical-systems (MEMS) and energy storage devices.

Aixtron announced today that the BM 300 system was installed at the the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan. AIST purchased the system back in April 2011. The system was installed in 2011 in AIST’s super clean room facility in Tsukuba and was commissioned by the local Aixtron support team.

AIST reports that they managed to produce monolayer graphene on 300 mm wafers using the new system. AIST will use the system to deposit high-quality graphene with a controlled number of layers. This will be a key part of a process technology used for creating low-voltage operation CMOS FETs, in which the power supply voltage will be less than 0.3V.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, USA, have demonstrated high quality wafer-scale deposition of graphene on evaporated copper films (as opposed to copper foil) for the first time. The researchers are using Aixtron's cold-wall vertical BM (Black Magic) Pro reactor, shown below.

The researchers explain that a pre-annealing process is used at first to create a hydrogen-rich polycrystalline copper film, followed by the decomposition of pure methane for the growth of high quality graphene. The growth occurs at a lower processing temperature than on copper foil.

Aixtron announced that the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Pisa, Italy, has ordered two BM Pro systems in a 4-inch wafer configuration. IIT Pisa researchers will use these systems for the development and production of graphene for the implementation of novel hydrogen storage systems. BM Pro is the new product name for Aixtron's Black Magic system.

TIT Pisa will use one system to deposit graphene using both chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The second BM Pro system is configured for high temperature (1800°C) processing with graphene to be formed using sublimation. Both systems have already been installed and commissioned.

Aixtron announced that Korea's Pusan National University (PNU) purchased an AIXTRON 4-inch Black Magic PECVD system. The system will be used for the production of graphene and carbon nanotubes - for research on renewable energy devices. The system was already installed at Pusan's National Core Research Center (NCRC).

Professor Kwang-Ho Kim explains that their reserach focuses on developing novel hybrid structures containing CNT and Graphene which utilize the unique physical and electronic properties of these materials. These structures are applied in electronic devices such as solar cells and sensors.

Aixtron sold a 300mm Black Magic Graphene deposition system to the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan. The order was placed in the beginning of 2011 and will be delivered in 3Q 2011. It will be installed in the AIST Super Clean Room at Tsukuba and commissioned by the local Aixtron support team. The system will be used for the development and application of Nanocarbon materials.

Aixtron announced today that they have received an order for a silicon carbide (SiC) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system from a major corporate research & development center in the US (northeast US, to be exact).

The R&D center ordered a VP508GFR 1x4-inch wafer configuration Hot-Wall reactor system with additional features including a Dual Tube Hot-Wall reactor with the Aixtron patented Gas Foil Rotation® for individual wafer uniformity and high temperature capability. The deliver will be in 2Q 2011 (the order was placed in 3Q 2010).

Aixtron today announced an order for one Black Magic deposition system from Purdue University’s Birck Nanotechnology Center in West Lafayette, IN, USA. The order is for a 2 inch wafer configuration system for the deposition of carbon nanomaterials and high-k oxides by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The order was received in the fourth quarter of 2009 and the system will be delivered in the second quarter of 2010.

Associate Professor Peide Ye of Purdue University comments, The Black Magic CVD/PECVD platform is vital to our ongoing advanced CMOS device characterization research projects. This first-of-a-kind dual-configuration CVD system will allow us to not only to carry out CNT and graphene deposition but also to prepare high-k oxides by ALD in-situ. Having this unique capability at Birck means that we will be able to optimise carbon/oxide-based materials for the next-generation device channels. The advantage of preparing the oxide in-situ directly after channel growth is that it potentially eliminates contamination and trapped charge, leading to cleaner channel/oxide interfaces and better device performance.

Aixtron announced today that it has received a purchase order for a 6" Black Magic Plasma Enhanced CVD (PECVD) system for graphene and carbon nanotube (CNT) growth from the University of California (UCSB).

This combined thermal CVD and plasma enhanced CVD tool is planned to be delivered in first quarter 2010 to Professor Kaustav Banerjee, who directs the Nanoelectronics Research Lab at UCSB. The PECVD system uses unique rapid heating and plasma technologies that is used to produce various types of nanotubes, including low temperature, multiwall, singlewall and supergrowth nanotubes.