Graphene provider gears up for 2D era
The reason is that 2D materials supply is entering a key period both for back-end-of-line (BEOL) and front-end-of-line (FEOL) applications, according to ANL founder and CEO Paul Hedges.
Applied Nanolayers was founded in 2012 based on research originally carried out at the University of Leiden. Since then it has developed equipment and processes for the chemical vapor deposition of 2D materials such as graphene, hexagonal boron-nitride and transition-metal dichalcogenides, such as MoS2.
The company has the ability to lay these 2D layers down on silicon wafers with diameters from 2-inch to 8-inch (200mm). The tools tend to come from the conventional industry suppliers but are heavily modified, down to the reactors, the materials and the control software, Hedges said. But ANL also provides 2D layers on 4-inch substrates with a transparent backing so that customers can roll the monolayer on to their own substrates.
This is effective way of allowing the BEOL application of graphene, Hedges said. It separates the high-temperature CVD growth process – 1,000 degrees C – necessary to create the graphene, from the FEOL processes used to develop underlying circuitry.
An obvious question is why doesn’t ANL offer 2D materials on 300mm wafers, the largest size and the one that is used for high volume production of logic on silicon? “We’ll offer 300mm wafers when our customers need us to,” said Hedges, without being specific “Our processes scale and after that it is only a question of money.”
Next: Roadmap
“If you look at the IRDS [International Roadmap for Devices and Systems] the intercept point for the adoption of 2D materials [in FEOL] is around 2028 on 2nm to 1.5nm manufacturing process nodes,” said Hedges. “We do need to be industry ready.”
But meanwhile there are applications of graphene in IR sensing, photonic switching and bio-sensing that can be used in the back-end-of-line and applied on top of interconnect and underlying circuitry. Almost all of these applications are relatively smaller volume and only require production on 200mm wafers, said Hedges.
“BEOL is where the market’s low-hanging fruit is right now. But FEOL adoption needs long-term R&D. We are seeing the shoots of new industry,” said Hedges explaining the need to take on venture capital now.
ANL has taken on small amounts of venture capital in the past but has mainly grown organically. Looking over the website of Japan’s Tokyo Electron Ltd. it is revealed that TEL Venture Capital Inc. is a strategic investor in ANL.
Hedges did not reveal how much equity capital he is aiming for but said that he expected the company to increase the headcount from about 20 people to 40, by the 4Q22.
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