Carbon material called graphene is fast replacing silicon (the material at the heart of all computer chips) in electronics. Graphene - a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, could allow electronics to process information and produce radio transmissions 10 times better than silicon-based devices. Usage of graphene produces faster and more powerful cell phones, computers as well as other electronics.
However, until now, the switch from silicon to carbon had not been possible because technologists believed they needed graphene in the same form as the silicon used to make chips: a single crystal of material 8 or 12 inches wide. The hurdle in achieving these is that the largest single-crystal graphene sheets made to date have been no wider than a couple millimeters, not big enough for a single chip.
Researchers from Princeton University, USA , have found that a big graphene wafer is not necessary to replace silicon chips, as long they could place small crystals of graphene in the active areas of the chip. They developed a novel method to achieve this goal and demonstrated it by making high-performance working graphene transistors. In their new method, the researchers make a special stamp consisting of an array of tiny flat-topped pillars, each 1/10 mm wide. They press the pillars against a block of graphite (pure carbon), cutting thin carbon sheets, which stick to the pillars. The stamp is then removed, peeling away a few atomic layers of graphene. Finally, the stamp is aligned with and pressed against a larger wafer, leaving the patches of graphene precisely where transistors will be built. The technique is like printing. By repeating the process and using variously shaped stamps (the researchers also made strips instead of round pillars), all the active areas for transistors are covered with single crystals of graphene. One innovation that made the technique possible was to coat the stamp with a special material that sticks to carbon when it is cold and releases when it is warm, allowing the same stamp to pick up and release the graphene. The research teams' lab took the next step and built transistors: tiny on-off switches - on their printed graphene crystals. Their transistors displayed high performance; they were more than 10 times faster than silicon transistors in moving "electronic holes" - a key measure of speed.
The new technology could find almost immediate use in radio electronics, such as cell phones and other wireless devices that require high power output.

Graphene could also replace indium tin oxide as an electrode material in displays. Transparent conducting films are an essential part of many gadgets including common liquid crystal displays for computers, TVs and mobile phones. The underlying technology uses thin metal-oxide films based on indium. But indium is becoming an increasingly expensive commodity and, moreover, its supply is expected to be exhausted within just 10 years. A research team from Manchester has now demonstrated highly transparent and highly conductive films that can be produced cheaply by dissolving chunks of graphite into graphene and then spraying the suspension onto a glass surface. The research team has demonstrated what it believes to be the first liquid crystal devices with graphene electrodes. It is believed that only a few small, incremental steps remain for this technology to reach a mass production stage.