SBIR Phase I: Low-Cost Nitride LED Manufacturing and Buffer Technology

SBIR 第一阶段：低成本氮化物 LED 制造和缓冲技术

• 批准号: 1046712
• 负责人: Sandeep Nijhawan
• 金额: $ 14.98万
• 依托单位: Siorah Incorporated
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-01-01 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1046712&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Low; Cost; Nitride

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project advances a novel method to manufacture nitride-based light emitting diodes (LEDs). Currently, LEDs are expensive due to the fact that they are produced on sapphire substrates using thermal metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). In this project, we will develop a new low-temperature buffer layer technology to enable gallium nitride film growth on silicon substrates. The current buffer layers for gallium nitride growth on silicon by MOCVD require high-temperature processing. This leads to high tensile stress in the film, resulting in poor crystal quality and wafer bowing, which lead to yield loss, and in some cases even cracking of the wafer. The low-temperature buffer layer growth is challenging, as the films tend to grow in a three-dimensional columnar mode at lower temperatures. To overcome this technical risk, a novel buffer will be developed that can also be scaled to large area processing. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will accelerate the mass-scale adoption of LEDs by reducing their manufacturing cost. LEDs have tremendous potential to make a positive societal impact due to their energy efficiency and the associated environmental benefits. However, LEDs currently cost 5 to 10 times as much as compact fluorescent lighting, preventing large-scale adoption. By allowing the use of silicon substrates and increasing growth rates, our new manufacturing process has the potential to reduce the LED manufacturing cost by up to 7.5 times for volume production. Moreover, the buffer technology to be developed in this project is also applicable to a wide range of other optoelectronic applications. Therefore, the successful completion of this project would not only have a significant societal impact by accelerating LED adoption, but also have positive economic impact by creating US green jobs and maintaining US technology leadership in a wide range of optoelectronic applications.

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目提出了一种新的方法来制造氮化物基发光二极管（LED）。 目前，LED是昂贵的，因为它们是使用热金属有机化学气相沉积（MOCVD）在蓝宝石衬底上生产的。 在这个项目中，我们将开发一种新的低温缓冲层技术，使氮化镓薄膜生长在硅衬底上。 目前用于通过MOCVD在硅上生长氮化镓的缓冲层需要高温处理。 这导致膜中的高拉伸应力，导致差的晶体质量和晶片弯曲，这导致产量损失，并且在某些情况下甚至导致晶片破裂。低温缓冲层的生长是具有挑战性的，因为膜在较低温度下倾向于以三维柱状模式生长。为了克服这一技术风险，将开发一种新的缓冲器，也可以扩展到大面积处理。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将通过降低制造成本加速LED的大规模采用。 LED由于其能源效率和相关的环境效益，具有巨大的潜力产生积极的社会影响。 然而，LED目前的成本是紧凑型荧光灯的5到10倍，阻碍了大规模采用。 通过允许使用硅衬底和提高生长速度，我们的新制造工艺有可能将LED制造成本降低高达7.5倍，以实现批量生产。 此外，本项目中开发的缓冲技术也适用于广泛的其他光电应用。 因此，该项目的成功完成不仅将通过加速LED的采用产生重大的社会影响，而且还将通过创造美国的绿色就业机会和保持美国在广泛的光电应用领域的技术领先地位产生积极的经济影响。