Precision Manufacturing of Flexible CMOS

高质量、低温生长的薄膜金属氧化物是与物联网相关的广泛新兴电子应用的迫切需要。许多能量收集、发电和存储设备也依赖于获得这种薄膜。这类设备的市场是巨大的（1000亿美元）。然而，制造技术无法同时提供所需的高质量氧化物和必要的低温处理。该提案的主要重点是开发一种制造工具，以便在低温下快速合成柔性CMOS器件的高质量p型氧化物。这些设备目前无法使用。这项工作还将对CMOS以外的各种氧化物薄膜的制造应用产生广泛的影响。这项工作在制造工具（大气蒸气压空间原子层沉积，AP-SALD）和加工方法（诱导表面准液体，以强烈提高薄膜结晶度和载流子迁移率）方面都是新颖的。该工具和工艺对于实现含氧化物的商用柔性器件生产的阶梯式变化至关重要。我们将与该地区快速发展的初创公司PragmatIC以及大型设备制造商Applied Materials密切合作，前者承诺为该项目提供现金和实物支持，后者是工业ALD领域的全球领导者，他们处于有利地位，也对AP-SALD制造工具的商业化感兴趣。

High quality, low temperature-grown thin film metal oxides are urgently needed for a wide range of emerging electronic applications relating to the Internet of Things. Numerous energy harvesting, generation and storage devices also rely on obtaining such films. The market is huge (>$100Bn) for such devices. However, manufacturing techniques cannot deliver the required high quality oxides simultaneously with the necessary low-temperature processing. The main focus of this proposal is to develop a manufacturing tool to rapidly synthesise, at low temperatures, high quality p-type oxides for flexible CMOS devices. Such devices are currently unavailable. The work will also have broad ramifications for the manufacturing of a wide range of oxide thin film applications beyond CMOS. The work is novel both in terms of the manufacturing tool (atmospheric vapour pressure spatial atomic layer deposition, AP-SALD) and the processing methodology (inducing surface quasi-liquids to strongly improve film crystallinity and carrier mobility). The tool and the process are together essential for enabling a step-change in the production of commercial flexible devices incorporating oxides. We will work closely with PragmatIC, a fast growing start-up in the area, who have committed both cash and in-kind support to the project as well as with Applied Materials, a large equipment manufacturer, the world leaders in industrial ALD, who are in an excellent position and also have interest in commercialising the AP-SALD manufacturing tool.