I-Corps: Novel Engineered Substrate Technology for Low-Defect, High-Yield Visible/UV LEDS and Power Electronics

人类的能源消耗达到惊人的15亿瓦，其中80%来自化石燃料，这些燃料产生约90亿吨二氧化碳，据信是全球气候问题的主要贡献者。取代这种以化石燃料为基础的能源生产的目标是一个令人望而生畏的问题，需要相当于1万座核能、太阳能、风能或水电的无碳发电厂。客观地说，目前全世界只有441座核电站，可再生能源要少得多。出于这个原因，遏制能源需求增长的大部分努力不是集中在生产上，而是集中在有效的能源消费上。为此，该团队提议将“工程半导体积木”(工程基板)商业化，使客户能够在节能电子功率和照明设备方面取得重大进步，从而通过提高能效来实现大规模节能。该团队最初的工作重点将是展示使用一项最近获得专利的技术的工程基板，这项技术对电力电子和紫外光和绿光发射器(称为LED)的新兴市场很有用。这些经过改造的基板将允许(A)为目前正在生产的设备制造质量/性能更高的各种半导体设备，以及(B)现有制造商扩展到具有更高性能的新设备，这些新设备目前无法通过任何竞争方法实现。i-Corps团队将对现有的氮化物基板模板技术进行详细的市场调查，包括它们的成本、材料质量、生产价值和交付时间。该团队将确定氮化物社区中具有使用传统非原生衬底(例如，硅、碳化硅)和原生模板(AlN和GaN)进行器件设计和生长的经验的客户。该团队将进行详细的客户调查，以了解所需的材料质量和兴奋剂水平。这些客户通过对其经验的直接调查提供的洞察力，对于将提议的技术成熟为可生产的产品将是无价的。至关重要的是，团队成员要从客户的角度了解现有的设备性能指标，这样他们才能确定团队可以立即提供解决方案并为客户产生直接市场影响的关键问题和挑战。该团队还将调查客户的定价结构，并确定他们愿意为根据他们的规格定制的工程基板支付多少钱。

Mankind's energy usage is a staggering 15,000,000,000,000 watts, 80% of which is from fossil fuels that produce about 9,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide believed to be a major contributor to global climate concerns. The goal of displacing this fossil fuel based energy production is a daunting problem requiring the equivalent of 10,000 nuclear, solar, wind or hydroelectric carbon-free power plants. To put this in perspective, currently worldwide, there are only 441 nuclear power plants and far fewer renewable energy sources. For this reason, most of the effort in stemming the growth of energy demand is focused not on production, but on efficient energy consumption. To that end, this team proposes to commercialize "engineered semiconductor building blocks" (engineered substrates) that will enable customers to create major advances in energy efficient electronic power and lighting devices enabling massive energy savings through improved power efficiency. The initial focus of the team's efforts will be to demonstrate engineered substrates using a recently patented technology useful for emerging markets in power electronics and UV and green light emitters (known as LEDS). These engineered substrates will allow (a) various semiconductor devices to be fabricated with higher quality/performance for devices currently being produced and (b) existing manufacturers to expand into new devices that have higher performance and are currently not achievable by any competing method.This I-Corps team will conduct a detailed market survey of existing nitride substrate template technologies, including their cost, material quality, production value, and time to delivery. The team will identify customers within the Nitride community with experience in device design and growth using traditional non-native substrates (e.g., Silicon, SiC) and native templates (AlN and GaN). This team will conduct detailed customer surveys to understand the desired material quality and doping levels. The insight provided by these customers through direct surveys of their experience will be invaluable to maturing the proposed technology into a production ready product offering. It is critical that the team members understand the existing device performance metrics from the perspective of the customer, so that they can identify the key issues and challenges for which the team can provide an immediate solution and generate direct marketable impact for the customer. This team will also survey customers on pricing structure, and identify what they would be willing to pay for engineered substrates customized to their specifications.