STTR Phase I: Silicon-Integrated Epitaxial Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) Chips for Photonics Applications

STTR 第一阶段：用于光子学应用的硅集成外延钛酸钡 (BaTiO3) 芯片

• 批准号: 2322389
• 负责人: Agham Posadas
• 金额: $ 27.5万
• 依托单位: LA LUCE CRISTALLINA, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322389&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Silicon; Integrated; Epitaxial

The broader / commercial impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is mass production of a standardized, large-area, silicon-based materials platform (wafer) for photonic integrated circuits. Photonics is the next step in information processing, using light signals instead of electrons. Such a materials platform is expected to revolutionize the silicon photonics market much like the introduction of silicon chips did for the microelectronics industry. The first step to successfully produce such wafers is to manage the extreme thermal stress arising from the combination of two materials (the optical material barium titanate (BaTiO3) and the silicon carrier chips) with very different rates of thermal expansion. Various processing techniques will be investigated to determine how such thermal stress can be mitigated. If successful, this new materials platform will used by telecom and data companies, and may enable new kinds of computing, such as photonic quantum computing. The total of these industries is expected to exceed $100 billion in combined market size by 2030. This STTR Phase I project will address one of the critical issues of scaling up barium titanate on silicon technology to thicker and larger area wafers. Barium titanate and silicon have very different thermal expansions and since the integration is achieved by deposition at elevated temperature, cooling causes large stresses to develop. The resulting stress may result in cracks in the film or even in shattering the wafer. Stress also affects the optical performance of the material and therefore, its management is crucial for subsequent device fabrication. The company is developing a process that mitigates this problem (e.g., programmed cooling) which will affect wafer production throughput. In addition, the company must control the direction of ferroelectric polarization, an important customer requirement for making devices. Solving these two issues is crucial to successful commercialization of this technology. Barium titanate films of thicknesses ranging from 0.2 to 2 micrometers will be integrated on silicon and subject to different thermal histories. Residual stress will be measured by x-ray diffraction and corroborated with polarized Raman spectroscopy. The resulting crystal structure, morphology, polarization distribution, and electro-optic performance will be used as metrics for determining if the thermal processing was successful.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.

该小型企业技术转移（STTR）I阶段项目的更广泛 /商业影响是用于光子集成电路的标准化，大面积，基于硅的材料平台（WAFER）。光子学是信息处理的下一步，使用光信号代替电子信号。预计这种材料平台将彻底改变硅光子市场，就像硅芯片为微电子行业的引入所做的那样。成功产生这样的晶圆的第一步是管理两种材料（光学材料钛酸钡（BATIO3）和硅载流芯片）组合产生的极端热应力，其热膨胀速率非常不同。将研究各种处理技术，以确定如何缓解这种热应力。如果成功的话，这个新材料平台将由电信和数据公司使用，并可能启用新型计算，例如光子量子计算。 到2030年，这些行业的总计总额将超过1000亿美元。该STTR I期项目将解决将泰坦尼省钛技术扩展到较厚且更大的面积晶圆的关键问题之一。钛酸钡和硅具有非常不同的热膨胀，并且由于在升高温度下沉积实现了整合，因此冷却会导致巨大的应力发展。由此产生的应力可能会导致膜的裂缝，甚至会破坏晶片。压力还会影响材料的光学性能，因此，其管理对于随后的设备制造至关重要。该公司正在开发一个缓解此问题（例如，编程冷却）的过程，这将影响晶圆生产吞吐量。此外，公司必须控制铁电极化的方向，这是制造设备的重要客户需求。解决这两个问题对于该技术的成功商业化至关重要。厚度为0.2至2微米的钛酸钡膜将集成在硅上并受到不同的热历史的影响。残留应力将通过X射线衍射测量，并用偏振拉曼光谱证实。由此产生的晶体结构，形态，极化分布和电形性能将用作确定热处理是否成功的指标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的评估标准通过评估来获得支持的。