Manufacturing Quantum Nano-LEGO Blocks for Electronics, Photonics, and Phononics Integrated Systems

由于硅晶体管的最小特征尺寸正在缩小，即使在室温操作下也可以观察到各种量子力学效应。这包括量子隧穿漏电流和量子束缚引起的电容降低。不幸的是，所有这些影响都降低了晶体管的性能，部分原因是基于经典力学的传统晶体管的设计原则。新的范式转变有望实现从经典技术到量子技术的过渡，以实现高性能计算、安全通信、仿真、传感器和计量方面的创新。然而，由于量子态对环境干扰极其敏感，因此要将量子结构集成到实际工业应用中，必须克服许多制造挑战。我们必须尽量减少线边粗糙度、厚度不均匀性、掺杂剂随机波动和界面缺陷。在这项研究中，将开发一种新的制造工艺技术来制造各种量子结构，称为纳米乐高积木，包括量子井，纳米线，量子点，柱和鳍。这些纳米结构构件将通过最先进的硅纳米制造工艺和自限湿蚀刻相结合来制造。纳米结构由具有原子平面界面的晶体取向定义，并将研究结构的量子性质。通过正确设计工艺步骤和3D器件布局，我们可以经济地以高可靠，低成本和高产量的工艺大规模组装这些构建模块。我们还计划在氦离子显微镜的腔室中引入操纵探针，利用静电力操纵积木来构建三维结构。这个概念是基于乐高积木的自然延伸到纳米尺度，即从几种定义明确的积木开始，我们可以通过积木的任意组合来构建复杂的技术艺术。作为该制造技术的应用，我们将制造3种器件：(1)基于Si/Ge的单光子源，(2)用于量子计量的Si单电子泵，(3)用于能量收集的Si片上散热器。虽然我们的主要目的是利用纳米结构构建块建立综合工艺技术，但我们将在实际设备制造中找到实际的工艺问题和解决方案，以确定真正的工业需求。这些构建模块的组合将使利用各种电子、光子学和声子集成系统应用的量子特性实现新的功能。这些应用并不局限于量子器件，我们将展示片上散热器和低损耗硅光子波导，它们可以立即为云计算的大数据中心节能做出贡献。

As the minimum feature size of the Si transistor is shrinking down, various quantum mechanical effects are observed even at room temperature operations. This includes the quantum tunnelling leakage currents and the capacitance decrease by quantum confinements. All of these effects, unfortunately, degrade the performance of transistors, and the reason is partially coming from the design principle of conventional transistors based on classical mechanics. New paradigm shift is expected to achieve the transition from classical to quantum technologies for innovations in high performance computing, secure communication, simulation, sensor, and metrology. However, many manufacturing challenges must be overcome to integrate quantum structures for real industrial applications, since quantum states are extremely sensitive to environmental disturbances. We must minimize the line-edge-roughness, thickness-non-uniformities, random dopant fluctuations, and interfacial defects. In this fellowship, a novel manufacturing process technology will be developed to fabricate various quantum structures, named Nano-LEGO Blocks, including quantum wells, nano-wires, quantum dots, pillars, and fins. These nano-structural building blocks will be fabricated by a combination of the state-of-the-art Si nanofabrication processes and the self-limiting wet etching. The nano-structures are defined by the crystallographic orientation with the atomically flat interface, and the quantum nature of the structures will be examined. By properly designing the process steps and the 3D device layouts, we can economically assemble these building blocks in large quantities with wafer scale in highly reliable, low-cost, and high-yield processes. We are also planning to introduce the manipulation probes in the chamber of our He-Ion-Microscope to manipulate the building blocks to construct the 3D structures by using the electrostatic force. The concept is based on the natural extension of LEGO Blocks to the nano-meter scale, i.e., starting from the several kinds of well-defined building blocks we can construct sophisticated technological arts by the arbitrary combinations of the blocks. As applications of this manufacturing technology, we will fabricate 3 devices: (1) Si/Ge Based Single Photon Source, (2) Si Single-Electron-Pump for quantum-metrology, (3) Si on-chip heat sink for energy harvesting.While our main purpose is to establish the comprehensive process technologies using nano-structural building blocks, we will find out real process issues and solutions in the actual device fabrications for identifying true industrial needs. The combinations of these building blocks will enable realization of new functionalities using the quantum nature of properties for various electronics, photonics, and phononics integrated system applications. The applications are not limited to quantum devices, and we will demonstrate on-chip heat sinks and low-loss Si photonic waveguide, which can immediately contribute to the energy saving in a big data centre for cloud computing.