"MATERIALS: Graphene leapfrogs silicon with electrically tunable bandgap"

Carbon transistors are not only faster than today's, but now can have the bandgap which defines their semiconductor properties electrically tuned. This unique new capability will likely propel carbon transistors past silicon within five years. R.C.J.


Graphene--a two-dimensional sheet of carbon--holds the promise of 10-times faster speed than silicon chips, but until now were thought to require channels less than 10-nanometers wide in order to open up a bandgap suitable for digital circuitry, delaying its entry into the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors to beyond 2017, when sub-10 nanometer lithography becomes available.

Now professor Feng Wang at UC Berkeley claims to have demonstrated a technology that can electrically tune graphene's bandgap, enabling it to be used for digital transistors long before lithography hits sub-10 nanometer sizes.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217900210