Graphenea - Page 4

Graphenea recently launched a graphene foundry service GFAB. The company will manufacture custom circuit designs on graphene wafers up to 6. The service is aimed at enabling fast device prototyping and accelerating development of new applications, lowering entry barriers to graphene-based solutions.

Graphenea states that in view of the market demands, the offer now includes small batch sizes (1-3 wafers). Lithography masks can be manufactured by Graphenea or provided by the customer. GFAB includes graphene growth, transfer on 4 and 6 wafers, metal contact deposition and lift-off, and graphene lithography with etching.

The Graphene-Info team attended this year's Graphene Week, organized by the Graphene Flagship in San Sebastian, Spain, 10-14 September 2018. The event attracted over 600 visitors from all over the world, and was extremely well organized.

While the talks and lectures were clearly scientifically-oriented, the commercial angle was also evident and many institutes and companies were there to show their recent product advancements. The Graphene Flagship's booth held a fascinating array of exhibits: graphene-enhanced retina and neural prosthesis (biomedical devices) by the ICN2 as a part of Braincom, Airbus' graphene composite for the leading edge of the tail of the Airbus A350, Nokia, Ericsson and AMO's graphene-based modulators and photodetectors for optical communications, a prosthetic robotic hand enhanced with graphene nerve sensors by the IIT, University of Cambridge's insole graphene-based pressure sensor and more.

MIT and Graphenea have developed an array of graphene sensors for sensitive and selective detection of ammonia. The array consists of 160 graphene pixels, allowing large statistics that result in improved sensing performance. The sensors are extensively tested for various real-life operational conditions, which seems to be a step forward to practical use.

The sensors are built by attaching porphyrins, a class of organic molecules, to the graphene surface. Porphyrins are particularly well-matched to graphene sensors because they provide excellent sensitivity while producing minimal perturbation to graphene’s outstanding electrical properties. When ammonia molecules attach to porphyrins, the compound becomes a strong dipole that changes electrical properties of the graphene. This electrical change is detected as a sign of the presence of ammonia.

Graphenea, in collaboration with industrial and academic partners (Infineon Technologies, WITec, RWTH Aachen University and Simune Atomistics), announced the successful completion of project NanoGraM that focused on nano/microelectromechanical (NEMS/MEMS) devices based on graphene. The project focused on three specific device concepts for potential future products: graphene microphones, graphene-membrane pressure sensors and graphene-membrane Hall sensors.

The target markets for these devices include portable electronics (smartphones, laptops), automotive, industrial, and smart homes, among others.

Graphenea has launched sales of GFETs (graphene field effect transistors) aimed at lowering barriers to adoption of graphene, especially the sensors market. Researchers needing GFETs for their applications, whether in gas, biosensing, or other applications, can now purhcase high-quality GFET devices.

Graphenea has started by launching two standard GFET-for-sensing configurations called GFET-S10 and GFET-S20, each including 36 individual GFETs on a one square centimeter die, but differing in device layout. The GFET-S10 has devices distributed evenly over the die and the GFET-S20 has the devices concentrated in the center of the die with electrical pads located at the die edge. The GFET-S20 devices all have a 2-probe geometry for probing electrical properties during sensing, whereas the GFET-S10 houses 30 devices with the Hall bar geometry and 6 with 2-probe geometry. The Hall bars enable magnetic field sensing, apart from applications in graphene device research, bioelectronics, biosensing, chemical sensing, and photodetectors that the 2-probe geometry also allows.

Spain based graphene producer Graphenea has launched a new Chinese edition of its web site to specifically target the growing Chinese graphene market. China is becoming a leading adopter of graphene technologies, and Graphenea aims to supply its high-end materials for corporations in China.

Graphenea produces CVD graphene sheets, graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide materials, which are on sale now in China via its online store.

Graphenea reports a successful 2017, with an impressive $1.9 million in sales revenue and a number of milestones. The company reveals that production volumes were expanded for both its staple products graphene oxide and CVD graphene. A 1 tonne per year (tpa) graphene oxide production plant has been established at Graphenea's location in San Sebastian, Spain, where new CVD graphene growth and transfer systems for 100 mm (4) and 150 mm (6) diameter wafers have been installed. Equipment for 200 mm (8) is expected soon.

The increase of production quantity was reportedly accompanied with an enhanced focus on quality and compliance - the graphene oxide product was pre-registered with the European Chemical Agency (REACH pre-registration), a necessary administrative step for producers that sell more than 1 tpa of any chemical. CVD graphene is now produced in a class 1000 clean-room, leading to record-high carrier mobility. Graphenea has also been awarded with an ISO 9001 certificate for Quality Management System.

CVD processes are used to create high-quality single layer (also bi-layer and tri-layer) graphene sheets. These kinds of sheets exhibit exceptional properties and can be used in a variety of exciting applications, from touch layers to transistors and sensors. For many years, CVD has been a high cost production process and this graphene is still mostly used in research projects in academic and research institutes, but prices are gradually dropping, to the point where commercial applications are starting to appear on the market.

Recent years have, as we said, brought on a continuing price drop in CVD graphene prices. Spain-based Graphenea, a global CVD graphene leader, has an online shop in which it offers its high-end CVD graphene samples. We have been tracking the prices of Graphenea's CVD graphene since late 2015, and the graph above shows the price decrease.

Graphenea recently announced the opening of a new graphene oxide (GO) pilot plant with 1 tonne per annum production capacity. The new plant is meant to significantly increase production capacity for Graphenea (which is already producing GO dispersions, powders, and films), while also allowing for higher quality and batch-to-batch reproducibility. The plant reportedly houses in-line quality control of each individual batch.

Graphenea stated that although the production volume is large, the new plant can accommodate custom requirements regarding flake size, oxygen levels, and other specifications. Orders for multi-kilogram quantities will be processed with short delivery times. The production capacity is multiplied by 20 times compared to capabilities before the pilot plant, allowing for development and industrial scale supplies.

The Graphene Flagship has announced preparations for two new experiments in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), to test the viability of graphene for space applications. Both experiments will launch between 6-17th November 2017, testing graphene in zero-gravity conditions to determine its potential in space applications.

One of the two experiments (named GrapheneX) will be fully student-led, by a team of Graphene Flagship graduate students from Delft Technical University in the Netherlands. The team will use microgravity conditions in the ZARM Drop Tower (Bremen, Germany) to test graphene for light sails. By shining laser light on suspended graphene-membranes from Flagship partner Graphenea, the experiment will test how much thrust can be generated, which could lead to a new way of propelling satellites in space using light from lasers or the sun.