PFI: BIC- New Substrates Enabling Next Generation Optical Devices: Solar Cells to Lasers

威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校（UW-M）的创新伙伴关系：建设创新能力项目，题为“新基板使下一代光学器件：太阳能电池到激光”，利用威斯康星大学开发的“虚拟”基板形式的最新创新，为开放光电器件领域的市场能力提供所需的新材料，特别是光发射器，在新的波长范围和太阳能电池。这些材料将通过工业合作伙伴关系开发，为这些设备在新兴的利基市场提供竞争优势。使用氢化物气相外延生长的砷化镓和相关化合物提供了创造新型衬底的能力，“虚拟”衬底，作为新器件，因此，光电器件的制造平台。实现的高增长率和对组成的控制使得半导体衬底的表面能够具有商业上可用的大块半导体衬底无法获得的晶格参数。这些超厚变质缓冲层在具有不同晶格参数的商业衬底和外延表面层之间过渡。由此产生的表面晶格参数是可调的，为工业合作伙伴提供了从太阳能电池到高性能量子级联激光器的新型器件。在该项目中建立的合作伙伴关系允许通过材料开发的整合，在UW-M开发新的转化研究能力，并在使用这种新材料所需的设计和材料指标方面获得工业合作伙伴的密切反馈。该项目的更广泛影响源于：1)对造福社会的技术的影响，创造新的市场，并为光电器件领域的市场准入提供独特的材料；2)参与者（尤其是研究生和本科生）获得的人力资本；3)在工程和新产品产生的影响显而易见的环境中纳入本科实习生。这一建议有助于推动这些工业-学术互动朝着建立在技术转移新视角上的其他材料的有意识发展。工业合作伙伴可以获得支持器件类别的材料，从而扩大高性能和专用半导体光电器件的市场。这种伙伴关系将提高效用和开发一类“虚拟”和潜在可重复使用的基板的水平，从而广泛开发以前无法通过使用当前的商业基板实现的新型设备。这些新衬底的形成、制备和加工是在其最终应用于高性能量子级联激光器、新型量子阱红外固体激光器和高性能多结太阳能电池领域的背景下进行的。UW-M和工业合作伙伴共同开发的这些材料将展示并使光电器件不再受到与商业基板的晶格匹配的限制。UW-M的研究人员基于对产品开发周期和那些必须解决以影响新市场的关键技术问题的理解，获得材料设计的知识。该项目的合作伙伴是威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校，通过化学与生物工程系、材料科学与工程系、电气与计算机工程系之间的跨学科努力；和三个小型企业：MicroLink Devices Inc.（独立），est. 2000 （Niles, Illinois）的核心业务是设计和制造用于蜂窝电话和其他无线设备的III-V外延材料；nLight公司（独立）成立于2000年，总部位于华盛顿州温哥华，专注于为医疗、国防和半导体太阳能应用开发高功率半导体激光器材料解决方案。Intraband LLC （UW-M初创公司），成立于2007年（麦迪逊，威斯康星州），是一家早期创业公司，目标是将量子级联激光器（QCL）技术商业化。

This Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity project from University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M), entitled, "New Substrates Enabling Next Generation Optical Devices: Solar Cells to Lasers," exploits the recent innovations in the form of 'virtual' substrates developed at the University of Wisconsin to provide new materials required for opening market capabilities in the areas of optoelectronic devices, specifically light emitters, in new wavelength ranges and solar cells. These materials will be developed through the industrial partnerships that provide them with a competitive advantage in burgeoning niche markets available for such devices. The use of the hydride vapor phase epitaxy growth of GaAs and related compounds provides the capability to create new types of substrates, 'virtual' substrates, which serve as new device, and hence, manufacturing platforms for optoelectronic devices. The high achieved growth rates and control over composition has enabled the formation of semiconductor substrates with a surface that can have a lattice parameter not accessible by commercially available bulk semiconductor substrates. These ultra-thick metamorphic buffer layers transition between a commercial substrate and an epitaxial surface layer which have differing lattice parameters. The resulting surface lattice parameter is tunable, enabling new classes of devices spanning the spectrum for the industrial partners from solar cells to high-performance quantum cascade lasers. The partnerships developed in this project allow for the development of a new capacity for translational research at UW-M through the integration of materials development, with intimate feedback from the industrial partners in terms of design and materials metrics that arerequired for the use of such new materials.The broader impacts of this project result from 1) the impact on technologies that benefit society, create new markets, and provide unique materials for market entry in the area of optoelectronic devices; 2) the human capital acquired by the participants, especially the graduate and undergraduate students; and 3) the inclusion of undergraduate interns in an environment where the impact of engineering and the generation of new products are readily apparent. This proposal serves to drive these industrial-academic interactions towards the mindful development of other materials built on a new perspective of technology transfer. Industrial partners gain access to materials enabling classes of devices resulting in the expansion of the markets for high performance and specialized semiconductor optoelectronic devices. This partnership will bring to an enhanced level of utility and development a class of 'virtual' and potentially re-usable substrates enabling the widespread development of novel classes of devices previously unachievable through the use of current commercial substrates. The formation, preparation, and processing of these new substrates is carried out in the context of their end-use in the areas of high-performance quantum cascade lasers, new quantum well infrared solid-state lasers, and high-performance multi-junction solar cells. The co-development of these materials by UW-M and the industrial partners will demonstrate and enable optoelectronic devices no longer constrained by lattice-matching to commercial substrates. The UW-M researchers gain knowledge of the design of materials based on the understanding of the product development cycle and those key technological issues which must be addressed to impact new markets.Partners at the inception of the project are the University of Wisconsin-Madison through an interdisciplinary effort between the Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering; and three small businesses: MicroLink Devices Inc. (Independent), est. 2000 (Niles, Illinois) has a core business in the design and manufacture of III-V epitaxial material used in cellular phones and other wireless devices; nLight Inc. (Independent) est. 2000 (headquartered in Vancouver, WA) focuses on specialty high-power semiconductor lasers developing material solutions for medical, defense, and semiconductor solar applications. Intraband LLC (UW-M Start-up company), est. 2007 (Madison, WI) is an early-stage startup with the objective of commercializing the quantum cascade laser (QCL) technologies.