Physics-based modeling and microwave characterization of graphene co-planar waveguides

In this study, large area mono-, bi-, and multi-layer graphenes (MLG) were synthesized using low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process and co-planar waveguides (CPW) with graphenes being fabricated using conventional photolithography. The intrinsic room temperature radio frequency (RF) characteristics were measured via direct contact to the graphene surface with a probe-tip in the range of 0.1 GHz to 40 GHz without using metal electrodes. The device characteristics were also evaluated by physics-based RLC equivalent circuit simulation. The proposed equivalent circuit model reproduced all of the measured characteristics within 3% of RMSE and we numerically extracted the set of component values which minimize the error between the measured data and the simulation results over the measured regime. Our findings demonstrate that MLG is an effective candidate in RF interconnect device applications.