SBIR Phase I: Single Beam Ion Sources for Advanced Materials Processing

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of a single beam ion source that enables the manufacturing of high-quality thin film materials and related products. Thin films have a significant impact on quality of life as they are used widely in semiconductor devices, displays, solar panels, tribological coatings, cell phones, optical filters, and micro-electro-mechanical systems. The annual market of these industry segments exceeds $600 billion and has been steadily increasing. Common methods to produce thin films include physical and chemical vapor depositions, which today have tradeoffs between film quality and manufacturability. A high deposition rate results in loosely packed atoms and subsequently unstable materials properties. Producing high-quality dense films today requires slow deposition at elevated temperatures leading to high manufacturing cost and other limitations, such as inability to use flexible substrates. Ion sources are plasma generation devices that enable ion beams to interact with materials at the atomic level and efficiently produce dense films. The single beam ion sources bring in multiple benefits for thin film fabrication, including superior stability, improved adhesion, low electrical resistivity, high optical transmittance, and smooth surfaces.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will validate the technical and commercial feasibilities of the single beam ion sources particularly suitable for fabricating high-quality thin films and devices. In ion beam assisted thin-film deposition, ions simultaneously interact with the atoms as they are deposited from another source. The ions transfer kinetic energies to the surface atoms so that they can move around to form densely packed films. The single beam ion sources proposed in this project can produce a highly focused beam of ions with tunable energy for optimal processing of the growing films. These unique features are enabled by an innovative design of the electromagnetic fields, which efficiently generate plasmas and extract the ions in a narrow beam. Unlike the conventional racetrack type ion sources, the single beam ion sources can accurately control the ion incident angle, which has strong effects on the surface morphology of the deposited film.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.