The EU Graphene Flagship has published its graphene application roadmap, showing when the flagship expects different graphene applications to mature and enter the market.

As can be seen in the roadmap above (click here for a larger image), the first applications that are being commercialized now are applications such as composite functional coatings, graphene batteries, low-cost printable electronics (based on graphene inks), photodetectors and biosensors.

Researchers at the University of Delaware have invented a technology that is meant to improve the communication between photonics devices. This new innovation could benefit smartphones, laptops, and various other consumer electronics.

silicon-graphene devices capable of transmitting radio-frequency waves at less than a picosecond at a sub-terahertz bandwidth have been successfully created. Silicon has long been a popular material for use in semiconductors found in many electronic devices. Unfortunately, there is a limit to what silicon can do in a semiconductor, due to its carrier mobility. This means that the speed a charge moves through the material, and its indirect bandgap, can dramatically limit the material’s ability to absorb and release light. But scientists believe they’ve found a solution to this problem, in the form of graphene.

Researchers affiliated with the Graphene Flagship have demonstrated novel high-speed graphene-based data communication at a data rate of 50 Gb/s. Integrating graphene sheets into silicon photonics could form the basis for next-generation data communications.

The project was a collaboration between Flagship partners AMO GmbH (Germany), the National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT) (Italy), Ericsson (Sweden), Ghent University (Belgium), the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) (Spain), imec (Belgium), Nokia (Germany and Italy), the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) (Austria) and the University of Cambridge (UK).

The Advanced Technology R&D Center of Mitsubishi Electric Corp. is reportedly developing a graphene-enhanced image sensor that can sense a wide frequency band of light from visible light to terahertz waves with one device.

It is said to be a multi-spectrum image sensor with a lower cost and higher performance, compared with existing multi-spectrum image sensors. Currently, multiple kinds of image sensors are combined in accordance with wavelength to realize a multi-spectrum image sensor, and high-cost materials and liquid nitrogen-based cooling are necessary to detect lights other than visible light.

The Graphene-Info team attended this year's Graphene Week, organized by the Graphene Flagship in San Sebastian, Spain, 10-14 September 2018. The event attracted over 600 visitors from all over the world, and was extremely well organized.

While the talks and lectures were clearly scientifically-oriented, the commercial angle was also evident and many institutes and companies were there to show their recent product advancements. The Graphene Flagship's booth held a fascinating array of exhibits: graphene-enhanced retina and neural prosthesis (biomedical devices) by the ICN2 as a part of Braincom, Airbus' graphene composite for the leading edge of the tail of the Airbus A350, Nokia, Ericsson and AMO's graphene-based modulators and photodetectors for optical communications, a prosthetic robotic hand enhanced with graphene nerve sensors by the IIT, University of Cambridge's insole graphene-based pressure sensor and more.

Researchers affiliated with the Graphene Flagship have shown that integrated graphene-based photonic devices offer a unique solution for the next generation of optical communications. Researchers in the initiative have demonstrated how properties of graphene enable ultra-wide bandwidth communications coupled with low power consumption to radically change the way data is transmitted across the optical communications systems. This could make graphene-integrated devices the key ingredient in the evolution of 5G, the Internet-of-Things (IoT), and Industry 4.0.

"As conventional semiconductor technologies are approaching their physical limitations we need to explore entirely new technologies to realize our most ambitious visions of a future networked global society," explains Wolfgang Templ, Department Head of Transceiver Research at Nokia Bell Labs in Germany, which is a Graphene Flagship partner. "Graphene promises a significant step in performance of key components for optical and radio communications beyond the performance limits of today's conventional semiconductor-based component technologies." Paola Galli, Nokia IP and Optical networks Member of Technical Staff, agrees: "Graphene photonics offer a combination of advantages to become the game changer. We need to explore new materials to go beyond the limits of current technologies and meet the capacity needs of future networks."

The Graphene Flagship was launched in 2013 with the mission to take graphene and related layered materials from academic laboratories to the market, revolutionize multiple industries and create economic growth and new jobs in Europe. Five years later, the Flagship consortium has reported that it successfully completed the Core1 phase and is progressing towards more applied phases. It is reportedly on its way to achieving its objective of developing the high potential of graphene and related 2D materials to the point of having a dramatic impact on multiple industries.

The Reviewing Panel thoroughly examined the results obtained in this Core1 phase and concluded that for many topics, there has been a clear transformation of the activities, moving from individual research projects to genuine collaboration towards larger goals exactly what a Flagship project should aim for. Nearly all milestones and key performance indicators have been met, often exceeding expectations. There are numerous examples of significant scientific and/or technological achievements, with clear progress beyond the state of the art. The Work package on Photonics and Optoelectronics led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Frank Koppens was recognized as one of the closest to being brought into industrial exploitation due to its significant potential for both scientific breakthrough and innovation.

Graphene Flagship Partners at the National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT) in Italy, IMEC in Belgium and University of Cambridge in UK have designed and tested a graphene-based phase modulator that reportedly outperforms existing silicon-based ones.

Modern optical data and telecommunications employ phase modulators to increase the amount of data relayed and data rate efficiency, i.e. the speed at which information is relayed. Phase modulators traditionally work by grouping several bits of information into fewer symbols, or packets, reducing the overall size, or spectral width. The smaller the spectral width, the higher the data rate efficiency. However, this efficiency is reaching a maximum with silicon based devices, and so a novel solution is needed to bridge the gap between the increase in demand for data and the efficiency in transmitting it.

Researchers at MIT and Israel's Technion have used graphene to devise a new way of enhancing the interactions between light and matter, in a work that could someday lead to more efficient solar cells that collect a wider range of light wavelengths, and new kinds of lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that could have fully tunable color emissions.

The basic principle behind the new approach is a way to get the momentum of light particles (photons) to more closely match that of electrons, which is normally much greater. This huge difference in momentum normally causes these particles to interact very weakly; bringing their momenta closer together enables much greater control over their interactions, which could enable new kinds of basic research on these processes as well as a host of new applications, the researchers say.

Researchers from the Russia-based Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology ('MIPT') have developed biosensor chips of unprecedented sensitivity, which are based on copper combined with graphene oxide instead of the conventionally used gold. In addition to making the device somewhat cheaper, this innovation will facilitate the manufacturing process.

The Russian research team's biosensing chip reportedly achieved unmatched sensitivity, and yet its configuration is mostly standard and therefore compatible with existing commercial biosensors, e.g. Biacore, Reichert, BioNavis, or BiOptix.