Abstract
In most applications based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene, the transfer from the growth to the target substrate is a critical step for the final device performance. Manual procedures are time consuming and depend on handling skills, whereas existing automatic roll-to-roll methods work well for flexible substrates but tend to induce mechanical damage in rigid ones. A new system that automatically transfers CVD graphene to an arbitrary target substrate has been developed. The process is based on the all-fluidic manipulation of the graphene to avoid mechanical damage, strain and contamination, and on the combination of capillary action and electrostatic repulsion between the graphene and its container to ensure a centered sample on top of the target substrate. The improved carrier mobility and yield of the automatically transferred graphene, as compared to that manually transferred, is demonstrated by the optical and electrical characterization of field-effect transistors fabricated on both materials. In particular, 70% higher mobility values, with a 30% decrease in the unintentional doping and a 10% strain reduction are achieved. The system has been developed for lab-scale transfer and proved to be scalable for industrial applications.
Highlights
In most applications based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene, the transfer from the growth to the target substrate is a critical step for the final device performance
A manual method for graphene transfer is widely used[5,6]. It mainly consists on protecting the graphene layer with a polymer, etching chemically the metal catalyst in an etchant solution to release the film in the liquid, rinsing with deionized water (DIW), and transferring it to the target substrate
A lot of optimization work has been done to improve this method in order to minimize the amount of residues in graphene[7,8,9,10], select the transfer region on the target substrate[11,12,13,14], recover the growth substrate for its reutilization[15,16,17], or to enhance the film handling to minimize the mechanical damage on the graphene, either by adding a rigid carrier[18,19,20,21,22,23] or by using capillarity effects[24] or electrostatic forces[25,26] that restrict the type of target substrate
Summary
In most applications based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene, the transfer from the growth to the target substrate is a critical step for the final device performance. A lot of optimization work has been done to improve this method in order to minimize the amount of residues in graphene[7,8,9,10], select the transfer region on the target substrate[11,12,13,14], recover the growth substrate for its reutilization[15,16,17], or to enhance the film handling to minimize the mechanical damage on the graphene, either by adding a rigid carrier[18,19,20,21,22,23] or by using capillarity effects[24] or electrostatic forces[25,26] that restrict the type of target substrate Most of these methods are simple and cost-effective, but they are time-consuming and require handling skills, affecting the yield and reproducibility of the transfer process. We demonstrate the improved carrier mobility and yield of the automatically transferred graphene, www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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