Graphenea, AMO and Emberion to take part in a bringing graphene short-wave infrared (SWIR) detectors to market

Graphenea, AMO and Emberion have been approved a European Innovation Council Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) project to help bring to market the G-IMAGER, a graphene imager based on graphene-on-wafer technology. The G-Imager is a short-wave infrared (SWIR) detector for applications in semiconductor inspection, sorting systems, spectroscopy hyperspectral imaging and surveillance.

A major obstacle for wider use of SWIR imaging products is the high cost of SWIR detectors, which are currently primarily manufactured with InGaAs technology. The high price is related to the complex manufacturing of InGaAs that also prevents increase of the detector production volumes. Now Graphenea Semiconductor SL, Emberion Oy, and AMO GmbH are tasked with constructing and marketing the G-Imager which will bring the core price down significantly, allowing market volumes to grow substantially.

The G-Imager will be based on the scientifically proven operation of a graphene channel coupled to nanocrystal light absorbers. The nanocrystals serve the function of strong light absorbers for high efficiency, whereas the graphene channel efficiently transports the generated charge to electrical contacts for detection. The benefits of G-Imager compared to other SWIR detectors, apart from the dramatic cost reduction, will be a lack of cooling requirements, low noise, large dynamic range, broad spectral range and scalable pixel size. These benefits will encourage quick market uptake of the product beyond the project duration, which is 24 months.

To bring G-Imager to the market, the project consortium will have to tackle challenges related to maturing the innovation. Namely, the production process yield for the detectors meeting a specified set of quality requirements must be guaranteed at a minimum of 85%, which is an industry standard. The technology readiness level must be raised to level 8, while scaling up the production process to meet volume requirements.

Graphenea will scale up production of 200mm graphene-on-wafers to 10,000 wafers/year. A key project goal is integration into semiconductor production processes, to ensure that G-Imager production is compatible with demanding requirements of the foundries where high-volume semiconductor device production takes place, like the foundry at AMO GmbH.

AMO will develop a new graphene device foundry service to industrialize production of the photodetector. Development of established design rules and other parameters for graphene processing through this project will shorten the time to market for other optoelectronic applications of graphene as well.

The SWIR detector production will be finalized at Emberion, where VGA resolution imager products will be made by depositing and patterning photosensitive materials on the graphene devices. Product finalization includes encapsulation, dicing and packaging the final imager products and integrating them into Emberion’s camera core products.

The project will demonstrate an affordable high-performance camera for VIS-SWIR imaging that will allow bringing SWIR detection into much higher volumes than today, enabling new applications in the areas of night and machine vision. The consortium expects the project to assist in raising the cumulative net income of the consortium members to €60 Million in 4 years.

The Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) is a fully-bottom-up innovation support program of the European Commission promoting close-to-the-market innovation activities open to industry-driven consortia. It can help partners to co-create and test breakthrough products, services or business processes that have the potential to revolutionize existing or create entirely new markets, under the helm of the new European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot.