SBIR Phase I: Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing of Highly Crystalline Thin Film Semiconductor Substrates for Flexible Electronics

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是进一步开发一项正在申请专利的技术，旨在生产灵活、轻量化和低成本的半导体基板。这些柔性半导体薄膜代表了硅片的下一个发展方向，硅片是当今90%以上电子设备的基础，包括计算机芯片、太阳能电池板、微电子、各种传感器和类似的“物联网”设备。硅片，以其目前的形式，本质上没有改变，因为它的诞生超过60年前。这些晶圆片虽然今天更大，但仍然很厚，刚性，易碎，并且仅限于直径不超过450毫米（18英寸）的圆形形式。以灵活、耐用的形式生产大面积、高吞吐量的这种材料的能力将是真正具有颠覆性的，并有助于引领下一代价格合理、灵活、普及的电子设备。加速这种“晶圆2.0”的商业化将有助于塑造21世纪美国的高科技半导体制造业。拟议的项目将侧重于在模拟卷对卷原型规模上开发这种创新技术，以提高薄膜晶体质量、可重复性和电子性能，同时准备将该工艺集成到大规模制造中。到目前为止，还没有一种技术能够生产出大面积、高结晶度的硅或其他适合高通量制造的半导体薄膜。在这项工作中提出的技术是一种新颖的，正在申请专利的工艺，适用于高吞吐量卷对卷制造，并具有有利于高均匀性结晶的几个技术优势。低成本、柔性、晶圆状基板将为广泛的电子设备和完全集成的片上系统设计打开大门，包括传感器、显示器、照明、处理器、存储器、微电子和光伏。具体的研究活动将包括通过探索操作参数来优化结晶过程；对原型室设备的改进和改进；评价中间薄膜层以提供理想的电子性能和促进更有利的再结晶；最后，在世界上最大的纳米技术研究所，使用最先进的半导体工具来表征所得到的半导体薄膜。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to further the development of a patent pending technology aimed at producing flexible, lightweight, and low-cost semiconductor substrates. These flexible semiconductor films represent the next evolution of the silicon wafer, the foundation of over 90% of today's electronic devices, including computer chips, solar panels, microelectronics, and a wide range of sensors and similar 'internet of things' devices. The silicon wafer, in its current form, is essentially unchanged since its inception over 60 years ago. These wafers, although larger today, remain thick, rigid, fragile, and are limited to circular forms no larger than 450 millimeters (18 inches) in diameter. The ability to produce large-area, high-throughput quantities of this material, in a flexible, more durable format would be truly disruptive, and help to usher in the next generation of affordable, flexible, and pervasive electronic devices. Accelerating the commercialization of this 'wafer 2.0' will help to shape America's high-tech semiconductor manufacturing industry for the 21st century.The proposed project will focus on the development of this innovative technology at a simulated roll-to-roll prototyping scale, to enhance film crystal quality, repeatability, and electronic properties, while preparing the process for integration into large scale manufacturing. To date, no techniques exist that can produce large-area, highly crystalline silicon or other semiconductor films, that are suitable for high-throughput manufacturing. The technique in this proposed work is a novel, patent pending process, suitable for high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing and has several technical advantages that favor high-uniformity crystallization. Low-cost, flexible, wafer-like substrates will open the door for a wide range of electronic devices and fully integrated system-on-chip designs, including sensors, displays, lighting, processors, memory, microelectronics, and photovoltaics. Specific research activities will include optimization of the crystallization process via exploration of operating parameters; improvements and refinements to the prototype chamber equipment; evaluation of intermediate thin-film layers to provide ideal electronic properties and to promote more favorable recrystallization; and, finally, characterization of the resulting semiconductor films using state of the art semiconductor tools at the world's largest nanotechnology focused institute.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.