OSA-Direct
Wednesday, 27 Nov 2013

EU funded GLADIATOR project starts

Gladiator seeks to improve the quality and size of CVD graphene sheets, and to reduce their production costs

5 Nov 2013 | Editor

The GLADIATOR (Graphene Layers: Production, Characterisation and Integration) research consortium - funded in part by the European Commission - began on 1st November 2013 and will run for three and a half years (42 months).

GLADIATOR seeks to improve the quality and size of CVD graphene sheets, and to reduce their production costs, in order to make the use of graphene more attractive e.g. in applications such as transparent electrodes for large area organic electronics.

The project will achieve this by:

  • optimising the performance of CVD graphene (using doping)
  • increasing the throughput and size of CVD batch reactors
  • improving the process by which graphene is transferred from the CVD catalysts to the application substrate

Consortium members:

Commercial partners:

  • Aixtron
  • Amanuensis
  • Amcor Flexibles
  • Graphenea
  • Horiba Jobin Yvon
  • Organic Electronic Technologies
  • Sgenia Soluciones
  • Suragus
  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  • CEA
  • Fraunhofer COMEDD Leader (coordinator)
  • Leibniz IOM
  • National Research Centre for the Working Environment
  • Technical University Denmark

A critical issue for graphene, especially as a transparent electrode, is how to achieve homogeneous large area coverage.

GLADIATOR will extend the size of graphene layers beyond that of the CVD tools by implementing a novel patchwork process using a transfer process with high yields and negligible impact upon the properties of the graphene. Transfer processes will be developed for rigid and flexible substrates appropriate for organic large area electronics (OLAE), and substrate and barrier properties will be optimised for use with graphene.

CVD production costs per unit area will be reduced not only by process parameter optimization, but also by developing methods to re-use the catalysts and by increasing the size of the reactor chamber. Process safety will also be addressed.

CVD graphene production will be optimised using new diagnostic and process control instrumentation based on Raman spectroscopy and spectrometric ellipsometry; the quality of graphene layers post-transfer will be assured using new non-contact in-line eddy current measurements and THz imaging.

The new production technologies will be demonstrated by making ultraviolet organic photodiodes (with possible application as flame detectors) and large area flexible OLEDs.

GLADIATOR directly targets the global market for transparent electrodes (estimated to be worth over 11,000 million USD in 2016) and will demonstrate that the performance and price of indium tin oxide can be matched by graphene (transparency > 90%, sheet resistance < 10 W/sq, cost < 30 Eur/m2).

   

World's leading weekly newsletter on the organic semiconductor industry

Published each week since 2003

free weekly newsletter