SBIR Phase II: Scalable Linear Ion Beam For Large Area Plasma Processing

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力涉及从淋浴门到消费电子产品到窗户玻璃的所有东西。例如，通过精确的能量控制大规模沉积高质量薄膜可以在玻璃上沉积类金刚石碳（DLC）。 玻璃上的类金刚石涂层可以防止淋浴门上的二氧化硫膜堆积，可以提高移动的手机显示屏的耐刮擦性，并可以降低节能窗户的成本。在制造过程中对能量的控制不仅会拓宽薄膜的制造范围，还将允许使用更多种类的基板。近年来，许多应用已经在有机太阳能电池和有机LED等新材料上使用了传统的无机涂层，如氧化硅。这些有机材料在涂覆过程中对降解表现出更大的敏感性。这种离子束源可以给工业，因为它开始把这些创新推向市场，一个工具的能量控制水平，将允许实验室结果转化为高产量，低成本的制造。拟议的项目解决了在绝缘和/或精密基板上沉积先进薄膜的挑战。在实验室的演示中已经显示，控制沉积的能量通量对于许多薄膜都是必需的，包括类金刚石碳、硅上的透明导电氧化物和有机太阳能电池以及超薄银。一个可扩展的线性离子束溅射源将建立一个大批量的薄膜制造工具，今天限制到小得多的规模。在第1阶段，演示了源的功能。第二阶段有两个主要组成部分：硬件开发的规模和可用性;过程开发的具体商业应用。该公司将提供一个完全集成的控制系统和一个源，可扩展2倍，专为制造而设计。工艺开发将考虑射束能量学和射束/靶/基底相对于膜和基底性质的几何形状。对于DLC，这将侧重于摩擦学和光学特性。对于银，他们将测试超薄薄膜的连续性。透明导电氧化物（TCO）的工作将集中在电气性能和基板的影响，特别是在硅载流子寿命。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project touches upon everything from shower doors to consumer electronics to window glass. Deposition of high-quality thin films on a large scale with precise energy control can allow, for one example, diamond-like carbon (DLC) on glass. DLC coatings on glass can prevent soapy film build-up on shower doors, can improve the scratch resistance of mobile phone displays, and can reduce the cost of energy-conserving windows. The control of energy during fabrication processes won't just broaden what films can be made; it will allow the use of a greater variety of substrates. In recent years, a number of applications have utilized traditional inorganic coatings like silicon oxide on top of new materials like organic solar cells and organic LEDs. These organic materials show greater sensitivity to degradation during the coating processes. This ion beam source can give industry, as it begins to bring these innovations to market, a tool with the level of energy control that will allow lab results to translate to high yield, low cost manufacturing. The proposed project addresses the challenge of depositing advanced thin films on insulating and/or delicate substrates. Control of the deposition's energy flux has been shown in laboratory demonstrations to be required for many thin films including diamond-like carbon, transparent conductive oxides on silicon and organic solar cells, and ultra-thin silver. A scalable linear ion beam sputter source will establish a high-volume manufacturing tool for thin films limited today to much smaller scale. In Phase 1, the source's functionality was demonstrated. Phase 2 has two major components: hardware development for scale and usability; process development for specific commercial applications. The company will deliver a fully integrated control system and a source, scaled by 2x and designed for manufacture. Process development will consider beam energetics and geometry of beam/target/substrate relative to film and substrate properties. For DLC, this will focus on tribological and optical properties. For silver, they will test for continuity of ultra-thin films. Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) efforts will focus on electrical properties and substrate impacts, particularly carrier lifetime in silicon.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.