The European Commission announced an investment of 20 million euros to build a new graphene electronics factory

Source: This article is from graphene-info, thank you.

Recently, the European Commission (EC) announced that it will invest 20 million euros in the next generation of electronics and semiconductors. As the first graphene foundry to integrate graphene and layered materials into semiconductor platforms, the 2D Experimental Pilot Line (2D-EPL) was officially launched. The new project aims to keep Europe at the forefront of this technological revolution.

2D-EPL was born out of the EU-funded Graphene Flagship project and will cover the entire value chain, from tool producers, chemical and material suppliers to production lines. The collaborative project will integrate several Graphene Flagship members to pioneer processes for the manufacture of new prototype electronic devices, photonic devices and sensors integrating graphene and layered materials.

2D-EPL will provide comprehensive prototyping services to companies, research centers and academics to develop and test their innovative technologies based on 2D materials.

“By developing a European pilot line for processing graphene and layered materials, we aim to bring these innovative materials from academic laboratories to semiconductor production lines, making them compatible with industry standards,” explains Cedric Huyghebaert, Technical Lead for the 2D-EPL project and Project Manager for Exploratory Materials and Module Integration at imec in Belgium.

“In addition, we want to provide the innovative graphene community in Europe with early access to an experimental pilot line. This pilot line will allow them to scale up the production of innovative graphene and layered materials-based devices.”

Combining graphene and 2D materials with silicon can enhance the potential of traditionally silicon-based electronics. However, integrating the two materials on a large scale has been a challenge, and progress has so far been slowed by a lack of infrastructure. 2D-EPL will address this challenge, enabling manufacturers to control the interface between silicon semiconductors and 2D materials on a large scale.

The goal of 2D-EPL is to develop the tools, chemistry, and materials needed to integrate graphene with layered materials on established semiconductor platforms using silicon technology. The ecosystem and procedures will be validated in state-of-the-art cleanroom environments across Europe, such as AMO and iHP in Germany; VTT in Finland; and imec in Belgium.

In a subsequent phase, the project will also develop modules to manufacture the fundamental building blocks of graphene and layered material-based technologies in optoelectronics, photonics and electronics. These modules will be publicly available to European users via multi-use wafers. This strategy will ensure that these novel technologies are widely available and accessible at a reasonable cost.

The ultimate goal of 2D-EPL is to work closely with leading European Graphene Flagship partners, including European SMEs, industrial companies, academic partners, research institutes, to build demonstrators and enable small-scale production of innovative graphene and layered materials-based technologies integrated with traditional semiconductors.

“In many applications, wafer-scale integration of graphene and potentially other 2D materials is necessary to get products to market,” explains Yelei Ye, business developer for electronic applications at the Graphene Flagship. “2D-EPL will accelerate the fabrication of new prototypes in electronics, photonics and optoelectronics using integrated graphene and layered materials.”

“2D-EPL really highlights how the European Commission, through projects such as the Graphene Flagship, can have an impact on European research, development and industry,” said Jari Kinaret, Director of the Graphene Flagship. “We identified a challenge – scaling up the production of graphene electronics – and the European Commission listened to us, seeking funding to tackle it.