Enhanced Electrical and Thermal Conduction in Graphene-Encapsulated Copper Nanowires

Abstract

Highly conductive copper nanowires (CuNWs) are essential for efficient data transfer and heat conduction in wide ranging applications like high-performance semiconductor chips and transparent conductors. However, size scaling of CuNWs causes severe reduction in electrical and thermal conductivity due to substantial inelastic surface scattering of electrons. Here we report a novel scalable technique for low-temperature deposition of graphene around CuNWs and observe strong enhancement of electrical and thermal conductivity for graphene-encapsulated CuNWs compared to uncoated CuNWs. Fitting the experimental data with the theoretical model for conductivity of CuNWs reveals significant reduction in surface scattering of electrons at the oxide-free CuNW surfaces, translating into 15% faster data transfer and 27% lower peak temperature compared to the same CuNW without the graphene coating. Our results provide compelling evidence for improved speed and thermal management by adapting the Cu-graphene hybrid technology in future ultrascaled silicon chips and air-stable flexible electronic applications.

Scaling Challenges for Advanced CMOS Devices

“…The latter is enabled by changes in the barrier and liner materials and by moving from electro-plating to electroless-plating. Also there has been an investigation into coatings which can reduce the side-wall scattering of electrons 167 . Clearly, significant changes are underway for fine-pitch metal formation and these changes introduce their own integration concerns such as: chemical mechanical polish without divots, cleans without eroding the new materials, and, perhaps most importantly, reliability characterization concerns such as efficient long-term testing on all of these possible combinations of materials.…”

Copercolating Networks: An Approach for Realizing High-Performance Transparent Conductors using Multicomponent Nanostructured Networks

“…The presence of graphene also enables injection of higher current density into the structure, making it robust for applications such as transparent heaters, wind shield glass heater, advanced interconnect structures, etc. [61,[64][65][66].…”

Uniform Spherical Graphene/Monocrystal-Copper Powder Fabricated by the Low Wettability of Liquid/Solid Interface

“…Graphene has shown a promising potential in improving the mechanical properties of metals (Cao M. et al, 2017;Kim Y. et al, 2013;Xiong D.B. et al, 2015), and also graphene wrapped micro-/nano-structures exhibit enhanced electrical and thermal conductivity (Goli P. et al, 2014;Mehta R. et al, 2015). Additionally, graphene encapsulated nanoparticles show a competitive advantage in lithium-ion batteries (Zhang J. et al, 2013).…”