Aachen/Germany, December 13, 2012 - AIXTRON SE today announced that Zhejiang University, China, has ordered an AIXTRON BM 2-inch R&D system for its Department of Information Science & Electronic Engineering. The order has been placed in the second quarter of 2012 with delivery due in the fourth quarter of 2012. The system will be used to advance carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene research at the department.

One of the chief researchers at Zhejiang University is Prof. Jiechao Lou, whose recent research has been focused on in-plane and tunnelling pressure sensors using graphene/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructures. Prof. Lou comments: "We want to expand and enhance our research in graphene and CNT using AIXTRON's equipment. The BM system has an excellent reputation for process and material reproducibility. Up to now we have depended upon manual techniques that can take days to prepare our carbon nano-materials. With the BM system, we will be able to concentrate on the science and electronic engineering potential of these exciting new material structures."

AIXTRON's BM system is a turnkey solution for next generation nanomaterials. In particular, the BM R&D system features a high performance, fast response heater (1000°C/minute ramp rate). This enables complex process steps at different temperatures to be reproducibly implemented, such as catalyst pre-annealing, growth and post annealing, which are vital for ultimate control of the material's structure and properties.

Recipes are automatically executed, enabling excellent run-to-run reproducibility. The system is capable of operating in both CVD and plasma enhanced CVD modes, allowing production of virtually all variations and morphologies of carbon nanotubes, nanofibers and graphene. In addition to sensor devices, other potential applications of these nanomaterials include transistors, interconnects, energy storage, thermal management, electron guns and microfluidics.

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