SBIR Phase I: High Quality and Low Cost Bulk Aluminum Nitride Substrates for UV LEDs

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将研究通过气相沉积生长高质量和低成本块状氮化铝（AlN）衬底的可行性。氮化物基器件（如发光二极管（LED）、激光器和晶体管）的性能受到异质衬底上外延生长的限制。 具有在紫外（UV）光谱中发射的氮化铝镓（AlGaN）有源区的LED被限制为~ 1%的效率，但是由于晶格匹配而特别适合于在AlN上生长。 因此，有机会通过使用具有低缺陷密度的紧密匹配的AlN衬底来增强这些器件的性能。所提出的生长块状AlN的方法利用了一种新的气相沉积方法，该方法使用低成本消耗品，可扩展到高生产率，并且能够获得高质量。 本研究的目的是展示具有低位错密度的优良晶体质量的AlN晶体（10000/平方厘米），以1 mm/hr的高生长速率生长。这些目标的成功完成将为高质量AlN衬底的大批量低成本生产奠定基础。更广泛的影响/该项目的商业潜力将是用于光电子和能量转换设备的低成本AlN衬底的可用性急剧增加的结果。 商业上可行的AlN衬底的发展将使许多设备，特别是包括UV LED，在输出功率，能源效率和寿命方面的革命性性能增强。高效率UV LED将具有广泛的应用，包括用于UV净化、UV固化和化学传感器的有毒汞蒸气灯的替代，并且UV LED将实现需要紧凑且坚固的UV发射器的新应用。对社会最重要的好处之一是能够提供一种有效、低成本和无化学品的方法来消毒供人类消费的水。 最后，作为高价值半导体材料的供应商，我们打算向美国较小的利基半导体制造公司销售AlN衬底的早期采用者，从而加强美国半导体制造业。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate the feasibility of growth of high-quality and low-cost bulk aluminum nitride (AlN) substrates by vapor phase deposition. The performance of nitride-based devices, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers, and transistors, is limited by epitaxial growth on foreign substrates. LEDs with aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) active regions emitting in the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum are limited to an efficiency of ~1%, but are especially suited to growth on AlN due to the lattice match. Thus, there is an opportunity to enhance the performance of these devices by using closely-matched AlN substrates with low defect density. The proposed approach to grow bulk AlN utilizes a novel vapor phase deposition method which uses low cost consumables, is scalable to high product rates, and is capable of high quality. The research objectives are to demonstrate AlN crystals of excellent crystal quality with low dislocation density (10000/square cm), grown at a high growth rate of 1 mm/hr. The successful completion of these objectives will lay the groundwork for high-volume and low-cost production of high quality AlN substrates.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be a result of a dramatic increase in the availability of low-cost AlN substrates for use in optoelectronics and energy conversion devices. The development of commercially viable AlN substrates will enable revolutionary performance enhancements for many devices, specifically including UV LEDs, in terms of output power, energy efficiency, and lifetime. High efficiency UV LEDs will have a broad range of applications including replacement of toxic mercury vapor lamps used for UV purification, UV curing, and chemical sensors, and UV LEDs will enable new applications which require compact and robust UV emitters. One of the most important benefits to society is the ability to provide an effective, low cost, and chemical free method to disinfect water for human consumption. Finally, as a supplier of a high-value enabling semiconductor material, we intend to market to smaller niche semiconductor manufacturing companies in the U.S. as early adopters of AlN substrates, thus strengthening the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry.