Development of graphene-metal film composite high-current carrying electrodes

酷派照明产品由柔性印刷电路板(PCB)上制造的发光二极管(LED)组成。印刷电路板由层压在聚合物基板上的铜(铜)迹线组成。之所以使用铜，是因为使用湿法化学蚀刻可以直接进行图形制作，使用成熟的焊接技术可以直接进行元件连接。铜的缺点包括成本相对较高，需要不环保的湿法化学刻蚀工艺，以及原型和定制制造成本相对较高。另一种方法是使用环保工艺印刷导线。到目前为止，印刷的导电油墨的载流能力比铜小得多，这是因为油墨的体积电导率比块状金属低5倍，而且不能印刷厚的导电电极。*拟议的项目研究石墨烯-金属薄膜复合材料的制备和表征。石墨烯具有许多独特的性能，超过任何其他材料，包括具有一百万倍于铜的载流能力，超高的室温电子迁移率，以及非常高的导热系数&gt；3000 WmK-1。石墨烯的缺点是难以制备低成本、高电子质量的材料。石墨烯-金属薄膜复合材料将在1000级洁净室中制备，并表征为单位厚度的方块电阻和最大载流能力的函数。Adachi博士的团队与Cooledge Lighting的合作将带来制备石墨烯-金属复合材料的新知识和先进的制造工艺技术，并培训两名高素质的人员。长期目标是使用柔性石墨烯表现出高载流能力，这种能力可以超过金属本身。低成本大载流电极的开发在更广泛的电子行业中具有潜在的应用前景。**

Cooledge Lighting products consist of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that are fabricated on flexible printed circuit boards (PCBs). The PCBs consist of copper (Cu) traces laminated to a polymeric substrate. Copper is used because it is straightforward to pattern using wet chemical etching and component attach is straightforward using well-established solder techniques. Disadvantages of Cu include relatively high cost, the requirement of non-environmentally friendly wet chemical etch processes and relatively high cost for prototyping and customized manufacturing. An alternate approach would be to print the conductors using an environmentally friendly process. To date, printed conductive inks have much less current-carrying capability than copper due to the 5x lower bulk conductivity of inks compared to bulk metal and the inability to print thick conductive electrodes. ****The proposed project investigates the fabrication and characterization of graphene-metal film composite materials. Graphene has many unique properties than exceed those of any other materials including having one million times current carrying capability than Cu, ultra-high room temperature electron mobility, and very high thermal conductivity of > 3000 WmK-1. The disadvantage of graphene is difficulty in preparing low-cost and high electronic quality material. Graphene-metal film composite materials will be fabricated in a class-1000 cleanroom, and characterized as a function of sheet resistance per thickness and maximum current carrying capability. The collaboration between Dr Adachi's team and Cooledge Lighting will lead to new knowledge and advanced manufacturing process techniques for preparing graphene-metal composite materials and result in training of two highly qualified personnel. The long-term goal is to demonstrate high current carrying capability using flexible graphene that can exceed that of the metal alone. The development of low-cost high current carrying electrodes has potential applications in the broader electronics industries. **