Kukil Graphene, Patent Registration Decision for 'Graphene-Based TFT Manufacturing Method'

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] Yoon Soon-gil, director of Kukil Graphene, a subsidiary of the specialty paper company Kukil Paper, announced on the 2nd that they have recently secured the world's best characteristics of N-doped graphene TFT (nitrogen-doped graphene thin-film transistor).

This technology produces high-quality, high-functionality graphene by directly growing graphene doped with nitrogen on a titanium layer as the active layer. They are pursuing international patent applications and domestic patent registrations for this technology.

This patent was derived from the transfer-free method being developed by Kukil Graphene. Graphene is damaged by argon plasma for 30 seconds to break the carbon chains of graphene. Then, nitrogen is substituted at the broken carbon sites by N2 plasma for 30 seconds, continuously performing doping and growth. The core of the patent is that the N-doped graphene TFT produced by this method can achieve the best semiconductor characteristics.

A company official explained, “The N-doped graphene TFT is all processed at 100℃ and formed on flexible substrates such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane). This process increases the flexibility of graphene by 15% and achieves a stretchability of up to 140%, which is an important point.”

He added, “This technology can be widely used not only in semiconductors but also in next-generation displays, and furthermore, it can be broadly applied to all semiconductor fields requiring elasticity and flexibility.”

Meanwhile, Kukil Graphene continues to pursue the re-registration of the US patent Transfer-Free Method for Producing Graphene Thin Film, which is currently under examination. A company official said, “On the 22nd of last month, the US Patent Office issued a Non-Final Rejection during the examination, so we plan to supplement the documents explaining the technology and request a re-examination. We ask for restraint regarding unverified rumors about the patent.”