Manufacturing of nano-engineered III-nitride semiconductors

该计划的目标是为21世纪的制造业开发氮化镓(GaN)及其相关材料(AlN和InN)的先进制造工艺，统称为III-氮化物。III-氮化物是支撑全球新兴固态照明和电力电子行业的功能材料。但它们的特性可以实现更广泛的应用：通过光伏效应和分解水来转换太阳能，净化水，通过光子和压电效应进行传感，以及在非线性光学中。III-氮化物的这些功能的许多应用都得到了增强，甚至可以通过创建三维(3D)纳米结构来实现。因此，拟议研究的特别重点是在制造规模上开发和纳米结构工艺，并在一系列创新材料和设备中释放III-氮化物半导体的这些特性的潜力。这项研究将满足和解决1)工业需要能够将基于单个片或晶片碎片的实验室结果放大到直径最大为6英寸的晶片批次的需要，2)能够设计出具有制造公差的器件的需求，以及3)快速表征器件以提高封装产量的需求。对制造工艺以及创新材料和设备的潜在商业开发将由申请者的公司合作伙伴协助和领导。该研究计划首先通过纳米压痕光刻和新开发的置换Talbot光刻技术开发晶片规模(高达6英寸)纳米刻蚀的核心能力，这是一种潜在的颠覆性纳米结构生成技术。然后，这些光刻技术将与加法和减法工艺相结合，在整个晶片上形成3D纳米结构。在一个重要的应用中，开发的纳米制造技术将用于开发通过金属有机气相外延(MOVPE)生长非极性和半极性GaN模板的制造工艺，以解决限制发光二极管(LED)和GaN基激光二极管效率的量子受限斯塔克效应的长期存在的问题。被称为设计中心的计算机辅助设计方法将被开发用于工艺优化，以最大化纳米结构器件(最初是LED)的成品率。另一项活动是探索将电子束和光学技术用作屏蔽材料和部分加工设备的生产工具。电子束和光学技术能够表征深度亚微米级的材料和设备。晶片规模的纳米制造技术、先进的MOVPE生长、表征方法和设计中心将被用于设计和制造创新和新兴设备，包括用于LED和光伏应用的核壳结构，以及结合光子晶体的纳米束传感器。在建立了III-氮化物的核心能力后，它将扩展到其他半导体的纳米结构，特别是用于制造光纤电信设备的InP和相关材料。

The goal of this proposal is to develop advanced fabrication processes for Gallium Nitride (GaN) and related materials (AlN and InN), collectively the III-Nitrides, for the 21st Century manufacturing industries. The III-Nitrides are functional materials that underpin the emerging global solid state lighting and power electronics industries. But their properties enable far wider applications: solar energy conversion by photovoltaic effect and water splitting, water purification, sensing by photonic and piezoelectric effects and in non-linear optics. Many applications of these functions of the III-Nitrides are enhanced, even enabled by creating three dimensional (3D) nanostructures. As such, the particular focus of the proposed research is to develop and nanostructuring processes on a manufacturing scale and to unlock the potential of these properties of the III-Nitride semiconductors in a range of innovative materials and devices. The research will address and resolve 1) the need of industry to be able to scale-up laboratory-based results based on individual piece or wafer fragments to batches of wafers of up to 6 inches in diameter, 2) the need to be able to design devices that are robust with the manufacturing tolerances, and 3) the need to rapidly characterise the devices to increase packaging yield. Potential commercial exploitation of the manufacturing processes and innovative materials and devices will be aided and led by the applicants' company partners. The programme of research opens with developing the core capability of wafer-scale (up to 6 inch) nanopatterning by nanoimprint lithography and the newly developed technique of Displacement Talbot Lithography, a potentially disruptive technology for generating nanostructures. These lithographic techniques will then be integrated with additive and subtractive processes to form 3D nanostructures across whole wafers. In a major application, the developed nanofabrication techniques will be used in developing manufacturing processes for the growth by metal organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) of non-polar and semi-polar GaN templates to address the persistent problem of the quantum confined Stark effect limiting the efficiency of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and GaN based laser diodes. The computer aided design method known as Designing Centering will be developed for process optimisation to maximise the yield of nanostructured devices (initially LEDs). Another activity will be to explore the use of electron beam and optical techniques, which are capable of characterising materials and devices on the deeply sub-micron scale, as production tools for screening materials and part-processed devices.The combination of wafer-scale nanofabrication techniques, advanced MOVPE growth, characterisation methods and Design Centering will then be deployed in the design and manufacture of innovative and emerging devices including core-shell structures for LEDs and photovoltaic applications, and nano-beam sensors that incorporate photonic crystals. Having established the core capability for the III-Nitrides, it will be extended to nanostructuring other semiconductors, notably InP and related materials as used in the manufacture of devices for optical fibre telecommunications.