Graphene integrated circuit is a first

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Photograph of the graphene integrated circuit

Belle Dumé writes that IBM researchers have made the first graphene circuit in which all of the circuit elements are integrated on a compact single chip. The new circuit is another important step forward for graphene-based electronics and potential applications include wireless communications and amplifiers.

Despite much progress in recent years and the fact that scientists have already made some high-performance graphene-based devices, it still remains challenging to integrate graphene transistors with other components on a single chip. This is mainly because graphene does not adhere very well to the metals and oxides traditionally used in semiconductor-manufacturing processes and because there are no reliable and reproducible techniques yet to make such circuits.