Modular Electronic Devices by Selective Co-axial Lithography of Nanowire Semiconductors

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This project provides new fundamental insights into the manufacturing of flexible electronic devices for applications in healthcare, energy, and textiles. Existing materials and current manufacturing approaches cannot presently produce flexible substrates with the needed electrical performance. This award investigates an advanced manufacturing process to enable the additive fabrication of modular transistors with desirable low voltages ( 1 V) and high operating frequencies ( 1 GHz). This research combines concepts from chemical engineering, materials science, and electrical engineering, and sets the stage for a variety of new electronic technologies that ensure the U.S. maintains its competitive edge in electronics manufacturing. The collaborative project offers multidisciplinary training opportunities for one graduate student and the team's podcast, called Nanovation,serves as a forum to discuss the nanomanufacturing concepts central to this project and, in doing so, generate interest among the general public and researchers alike. This research project seeks to develop an additive nanomanufacturing process to fabricate modular, high-performance field-effect transistors. The work synergistically combines bottom-up semiconductor crystal growth with a new selective coaxial lithography method to template a self-aligned gate stack on a single-crystalline, sub-micron channel. Specifically, the research team advances the understanding of the coaxial lithographic method, develops compatible area-selective deposition processes to achieve a low defect density gate stack, and electrically contacts and characterizes the resulting nanoelectronic devices. Structural and electrical characterization at each step provides feedback with which to advance the process and device designs. Success motivates important next steps, such as, the placement and interconnection of modular devices to form functional circuitry.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.