Fujitsu Laboratories has combined two of the great hopes for far-generation electronics: carbon nanotubes and graphene.
Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms whose structure resembles chicken wire, is just about the fastest semiconductor available and, unlike carbon nanotubes, it is compatible with planar wafer processing.
However, graphene is difficult to grow, and good quality graphene is impossible to grow. Instead it has to be flaked off blocks of graphite by rubbing, and then stuck to a substrate.
Available synthesis techniques need around 700°C, whereas 400°C would be more useful for electronics.
Now Fujitsu claims to have grown graphene on a substrate using a forest of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with the added benefit that CNTs have incredible axial thermal conductivity.
"The composite structure is synthesised at a temperature of 510°C, cooler than for conventional graphene formed at temperatures too high for electronic device applications, thereby paving the way for the feasible use of graphene as a material suitable for future practical use in electronic devices which are vulnerable to heat."
The laboratory said the CNTs are multi-walled, and that the graphene varies from a few layers to a few dozen layers thick. So far, the evidence is that the fastest electronic devices will come from single or dual-layer graphene.
The material has not yet been evaluated in depth, but Fujitsu expects the structure to have electrical conduction and thermal dissipation in all directions.
"Fujitsu Laboratories will continue to explore the mechanisms by which complex carbon nanostructures form and elucidate their physical characteristics, in order to develop electronic device application technologies that take advantage of those characteristics," said Fujitsu. "In addition, in the field of material sciences Fujitsu Laboratories will pursue the development of technologies to enable the formation of high-quality carbon nanostructures at a lower temperature."