Computationally-Guided Manufacturing of Nanowires and Nanowire Devices

半导体纳米线具有独特的性能，使其成为下一代高性能电子器件、化学和生物传感器、太阳能电池和光子器件的杰出候选者，这些器件可能会影响到每个工业部门。然而，目前的纳米线生产技术还不适合商业规模生产。由于纳米线通常以纠缠网的形式生产，因此需要复杂的制造过程来选择、定位和排列纳米线，使其达到制造器件所需的位置。该奖项支持研究克服上述障碍的新型半导体纳米线制造技术。该研究团队将开发一种独特的、首创的技术，用于制造纳米线设备所需的尺寸、组成、方向、放置、性能和功能可控的纳米线。该项目将涉及多个学科，包括纳米制造、材料合成计算建模、高精度控制和制造系统集成。由于纳米线器件将在能源、医疗保健、消费电子和国防领域得到广泛应用，因此这项研究的结果将有利于美国的经济和社会。此外，该项目还将帮助扩大代表性不足的群体对研究的参与，增加对教育的影响，并提高公众对纳米科学和纳米技术的认识。该项目的使能技术是普渡大学最近开发的激光诱导化学气相沉积（CVD）方法。在此过程中，激光束入射到衬底上，在衬底上加热并解离前驱体气体，如硅烷和锗烯。在计算机控制下移动衬底，使得激光引导半导体纳米线的生长具有超高精度。利用入射激光束与表面散射激光之间的干涉效应是制备几十纳米尺寸纳米线的关键。研究团队将专注于计算导向制造。它将生成纳米线制造过程的计算模型，并将其与先进的计量工具和反馈控制集成到单个制造平台中。因此，本研究将实现大规模制造纳米线器件所需的纳米线尺寸、性质、位置和性质的实时控制。

Semiconductor nanowires have unique properties that make them prominent candidates for the next generation high-performance electronic devices, chemical and biological sensors, solar cells, and photonics devices that can potentially impact every industrial sector. However, current technologies for producing nanowires are not suitable for commercial scale manufacturing. Because nanowires are often produced as an entangled mesh, complicated fabrication procedures are required to select, position, and align nanowires in placement required for making devices. This award supports research to investigate a novel semiconductor nanowire manufacturing technology that overcomes the above-mentioned obstacles. The research team will develop a unique and first of its kind technology for manufacturing nanowires with controlled dimension, composition, orientation, placement, property, and functionality necessary for large scale manufacturing of nanowire devices. The project will involve multiple disciplines including nanomanufacturing, computational modeling of materials synthesis, high precision control, and manufacturing system integration. As nanowire devices will find a broad range of applications in energy, healthcare, consumer electronics, and defense, results from this research will benefit the U.S. economy and society. In addition, the project will also help broaden participation of underrepresented groups in research, increase impact on education, and increase public awareness of nanoscience and nanotechnology.The enabling technology of the project is a laser-induced chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method recently developed at Purdue University. In this process, a laser beam is incident on a substrate, above which precursor gases such as silane and germane are heated and dissociated. Moving the substrate under computer control allows laser-guided growth of semiconductor nanowires with ultrahigh precision. The key to producing nanowires with dimensions of a few tens of nanometers is to utilize the interference effect between the incident laser beam and the surface scattered laser radiation. The research team will focus on computationally-guided manufacturing. It will generate computational models of the nanowire manufacturing process, and integrate them with advanced metrology tools, and feedback control in to a single manufacturing platform. As a result, this research will realize real-time control of the nanowire dimensions, properties, placements, and properties that is necessary for manufacturing nanowire devices at large scale.