STTR Phase I: Direct 3D Fabrication Platform for Single-Crystal Silicon and Silicon Carbide

STTR第一阶段：单晶硅和碳化硅的直接3D制造平台

• 批准号: 1914293
• 负责人: Gregory Nielson
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Nielson Scientific LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2021-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1914293&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Direct; 3D; Fabrication

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is the development of a 3D fabrication technology that provides the benefits of 3D printing (i.e., rapid prototyping, the creation of complex 3D structures, etc.) for high-quality, single-crystal silicon and silicon carbide. The technique will compete with traditional photolithography-based semiconductor manufacturing for applications such as MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) sensors such as accelerometers in cell phones and vehicle airbags, silicon photonics used in optical communications networks and data centers, microfluidics for drug-discovery and other biomedical applications, and interposers for 3D integration of integrated circuits. The 3D fabrication technique is superior to traditional semiconductor fabrication in three ways: 1) Up to a 100X reduction in prototype manufacturing time, resulting in cost savings and increasing the speed of R&D cycles; 2) Significantly reducing CapEx by replacing multiple fabrication tools with one single tool; and 3) Creating complex 3D structures directly, significantly improving on the limited extruded 2D geometries available from photolithography-based fabrication. Additionally, the 3D manufacturing capability can be extended to macro-scale components and impact industries such as energy conversion and aerospace by providing complex 3D structures made from single-crystal silicon carbide for extreme high-temperature operation.The proposed project combines elements of advanced nonlinear optics with electrochemical etching of semiconductor materials to enable the 3D manufacturing technique for single-crystal silicon and silicon carbide. While the fundamental physical mechanism has been demonstrated in work leading up to this project, there are important questions remaining about control of the material removal process, the surface quality of the final structure, and the rate at which material can be removed. These questions need to be addressed to understand which applications of the 3D manufacturing technique are commercially viable. The technical objectives and tasks for this project have been designed to answer these questions through careful experimentation and, with the data obtained, identify the most promising applications to pursue. Experiments for both silicon and silicon carbide will be conducted that explore a range of permutations of input parameters and variables for the 3D manufacturing process. Results of these experiments will be studied and characterized to identify optimal etch parameters and the etch results possible with those etch parameters. At the conclusion of this Phase 1 STTR project, the capabilities of the 3D fabrication technique will be better understood and a clear path for commercializing the capability will be identified.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.

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是开发一种3D制造技术，该技术提供了3D打印的好处（即，快速成型、创建复杂的3D结构等）用于高质量单晶硅和碳化硅。该技术将与传统的基于光刻的半导体制造竞争，例如微机电系统（MEMS）传感器，如手机和汽车安全气囊中的加速度计，用于光通信网络和数据中心的硅光子学，用于药物发现和其他生物医学应用的微流体，以及用于集成电路3D集成的插入器。3D制造技术在三个方面上级传统的半导体制造：1）原型制造时间减少多达100倍，从而节省成本并提高研发周期的速度&; 2）通过用一个单一的工具取代多个制造工具，显著降低资本支出;以及3）直接创建复杂的3D结构，显著改进了基于光刻的制造中可用的有限的挤出2D几何形状。此外，通过提供用于极端高温操作的由单晶碳化硅制成的复杂3D结构，3D制造能力可以扩展到宏观尺度组件和冲击行业，如能源转换和航空航天。该项目将先进的非线性光学元件与半导体材料的电化学蚀刻相结合，以实现单晶硅和碳化硅的3D制造技术。虽然基本的物理机制已经在导致该项目的工作中得到了证明，但仍然存在关于材料去除过程的控制，最终结构的表面质量以及材料去除速度的重要问题。这些问题需要解决，以了解3D制造技术的哪些应用在商业上是可行的。该项目的技术目标和任务旨在通过仔细的实验来回答这些问题，并利用所获得的数据来确定最有前途的应用。将进行硅和碳化硅的实验，探索3D制造过程的输入参数和变量的排列范围。这些实验的结果将被研究和表征，以确定最佳的蚀刻参数和蚀刻结果可能与这些蚀刻参数。在第一阶段STTR项目结束时，将更好地了解3D制造技术的能力，并确定将该能力商业化的明确途径。该奖项反映了NSF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。