Scientists take big step in making graphene a viable silicon substitute

A new study moves the wonder material graphene a major step closer to knocking silicon off as the dominant workhorse of the electronics industry. While silicon is ubiquitous in semiconductors and integrated circuits, researchers have been eyeing graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of crystallized carbon, as an enticing replacement because of the ultrafast speed with which electrons can zip through the material.

A team of researchers at UC Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have found a way to control the movement and placement of electrons in graphene, and to do so in a way that can make it easy to change the polarity of the charge with an electric field.