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Where did they claim to make a chip? It seems to be just a single epigraphene layer.
by programjames 3y ago
Where did they claim to make a chip? It seems to be just a single epigraphene layer.
- jacquesm 3y ago'just'?
- robertlagrant 3y agoA chip is a lot harder than a wafer, and a chip is what's claimed.
- jacquesm 3y agoFrom nothing at all to a wafer of a new material is a giant step compared to the step from a wafer to a chip.
- topspin 3y agoIs it? What is the plan for depositing these materials with precision to implement logic? Doesn't seem like conventional lithography is applicable.
- h0l0cube 3y agoAccording to a sibling comment they already made a FET https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39057303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39057303
- topspin 3y agoThat paper describes using e-beam deposition: they're using an electron beam to fabricate individual components in the lab. That's fine for experiments. It has zero value for making devices with billions of components. Unless there is something akin to lithograph techniques you can't make products economically.
- jacquesm 3y agoIt would seem a bit much to require that they jump from 'have a wafer' to 'volume production' overnight. But the fact that they can use electron beam deposition to fabricate indicates one very important thing (to me, at least): the same kind of technologies that can work on Silicon wafers appear to be viable for these Graphene based ones. And that would allow recycling a whole pile of tech, possibly speedrunning through the last bunch of feature sizes because of all of the experience gained with Silicon. To me it says Graphene will now work in the next five to ten years or it will likely never happen. It would need to outperform Silicon on at least one metric (density, power consumption, speed) to make it worth it for niche applications and then bit by bit economies of scale would take over.
- programjames 3y agoTo be fair, epigraphene wafers already existed, they just weren't nearly as pure.
- jacquesm 3y agoThat's very much a key bit though. If you want to have any kind of yield.