SBIR Phase II: Integration of Heterogeneous Device Technologies

这一小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛/商业影响将是对不断增长的通信市场（到2026年市场规模将达到47亿美元）的颠覆，该市场受到半导体制造工艺能力和氮化镓（GaN）等化合物半导体成本的限制。该项目将通过将化合物和硅基半导体结合在一起来重新构想半导体制造工艺，以降低相对于仅使用单一器件技术的解决方案的系统成本。该项目将在一个专有技术平台上为新兴的通信和传感行业组装未来的系统，以支持制造技术的转变，从光刻图案到最小组成部件的组装。最后，该项目将使低成本，自动化半导体制造，以帮助美国恢复在硅半导体制造的领导地位，同时帮助美国的半导体代工厂定义新的市场。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目是第一个同类分析故障机制在异质半导体和独特的混合半导体的设计，改善集成电路中的产量和可靠性的信号电路。具有不同基本材料性质的半导体的异质集成已经成为“超越摩尔定律”半导体的新兴目标。射频（RF）和毫米波集成电路将通过规避所有硅方法的基本限制而在性能方面受益。 该项目将围绕优化器件开发从材料到系统的新方法，以满足输出功率、线性度和噪声等性能目标，同时利用与基于硅的混合信号方法的紧密集成，提供RF缺陷的校准、补偿和预失真。虽然低水平的异构集成已经在毫米波段得到证明，但集成电路技术将需要数十甚至数百个III-V族器件集成在具有数百万个硅晶体管的公共平台上。该计划将评估与新集成电路的组装和操作相关的故障机制，以及减轻这些问题的方法，以降低将下一代产品推向市场的成本。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will be a disruption to the growing communications marketplace ( $4.7B market by 2026) which is limited by the capabilities of semiconductor manufacturing processes and the cost of compound semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN). This project will reimagine the semiconductor manufacturing process by bringing compound and silicon-based semiconductors together to reduce system costs relative to solutions using only single device technologies. This project will assemble future systems for the burgeoning communications and sensing industries in a proprietary technology platform to support a shift in manufacturing technology that spans from lithographic patterning to the assembly of the smallest constituent parts. Finally, the project will enable low-cost, automated semiconductor manufacturing to help the United States regain leadership in silicon semiconductor manufacturing while helping US-based semiconductor foundries define new markets.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is a first-of-its-kind analysis of failure mechanisms in heterogeneous semiconductors and the design of unique mixed-signal circuitry that improves the yield and reliability in integrated circuits. Heterogeneous integration of semiconductors with different fundamental material properties has been an emerging goal for “beyond Moore’s law” semiconductors. Radio frequency (RF) and millimeter-wave integrated circuits will benefit in performance by circumventing fundamental limitations with all silicon approaches. The project will develop new approaches from materials to systems around an optimization of devices to meet performance objectives such as output power, linearity, and noise while leveraging the intimate integration with mixed-signal approaches based in silicon to provide calibration, compensation, and predistortion of RF imperfections. While low levels of heterogeneous integration have been demonstrated in millimeter-wave bands, the integrated circuit technology will require dozens and even hundreds of III-V devices integrated on a common platform with millions of silicon transistors. The proposed effort will assess the failure mechanisms associated with the assembly and operation of new integrated circuits and approaches to mitigate these problems to reduce the cost of bringing next generation products to market.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.