I.B.M. researchers have designed high-speed circuits, known as broadband frequency mixers, from graphene. This type of transistor is widely used in all kinds of communications products. I.B.M. has, in the past, created stand-alone graphene transistors, but this device is the first complete graphene electronic circuit. Graphene is not yet a candidate to replace today’s CMOS transistors, but industry is excited over the potential applications for the material. Government and corporate investments, particularly in Asia and Europe, in graphene, are far in advance of those in the United States, according to Phaedon Avouris, a chemical physicist with I.B.M. The European Union and South Korea have both invested heavily in efforts to use graphene as a next-generation display material. The low cost of graphene has driven the push to try and integrate it into today’s conventional consumer electronics systems. “In principle it can be made very cheap and it can be light-transparent,” Dr. Avouris said, “and so even if we don’t go for high frequency, I think it can revolutionize the price” of radio-frequency electronics. I.B.M., while now able to build circuits with the material, is still learning reliable ways to make large quantities of graphene film. Dr. Avouris also said that I.B.M. is not certain what the company would do to commercialize the new technology.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/technology/10chip.html?_r=1