STTR Phase I: Direct 3D Fabrication Platform for Single-Crystal Silicon and Silicon Carbide

STTR第一阶段：单晶硅和碳化硅的直接3D制造平台

• 批准号: 1914293
• 负责人: Gregory Nielson
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Nielson Scientific LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2021-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1914293&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Direct; 3D; Fabrication

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is the development of a 3D fabrication technology that provides the benefits of 3D printing (i.e., rapid prototyping, the creation of complex 3D structures, etc.) for high-quality, single-crystal silicon and silicon carbide. The technique will compete with traditional photolithography-based semiconductor manufacturing for applications such as MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) sensors such as accelerometers in cell phones and vehicle airbags, silicon photonics used in optical communications networks and data centers, microfluidics for drug-discovery and other biomedical applications, and interposers for 3D integration of integrated circuits. The 3D fabrication technique is superior to traditional semiconductor fabrication in three ways: 1) Up to a 100X reduction in prototype manufacturing time, resulting in cost savings and increasing the speed of R&D cycles; 2) Significantly reducing CapEx by replacing multiple fabrication tools with one single tool; and 3) Creating complex 3D structures directly, significantly improving on the limited extruded 2D geometries available from photolithography-based fabrication. Additionally, the 3D manufacturing capability can be extended to macro-scale components and impact industries such as energy conversion and aerospace by providing complex 3D structures made from single-crystal silicon carbide for extreme high-temperature operation.The proposed project combines elements of advanced nonlinear optics with electrochemical etching of semiconductor materials to enable the 3D manufacturing technique for single-crystal silicon and silicon carbide. While the fundamental physical mechanism has been demonstrated in work leading up to this project, there are important questions remaining about control of the material removal process, the surface quality of the final structure, and the rate at which material can be removed. These questions need to be addressed to understand which applications of the 3D manufacturing technique are commercially viable. The technical objectives and tasks for this project have been designed to answer these questions through careful experimentation and, with the data obtained, identify the most promising applications to pursue. Experiments for both silicon and silicon carbide will be conducted that explore a range of permutations of input parameters and variables for the 3D manufacturing process. Results of these experiments will be studied and characterized to identify optimal etch parameters and the etch results possible with those etch parameters. At the conclusion of this Phase 1 STTR project, the capabilities of the 3D fabrication technique will be better understood and a clear path for commercializing the capability will be identified.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.

这种小型企业技术转移（STTR）I阶段项目的更广泛影响是开发3D制造技术，该技术提供了3D打印的好处（即快速原型制作，建立复杂的3D结构等） ，单晶硅和碳化硅。该技术将与传统的基于光刻的半导体制造竞争，用于应用程序，例如微电动机电系统（MEMS）传感器，例如手机和车辆安全气囊中的加速度计，用于光学通信网络和数据中心，用于药物企业和其他生物融合的光子光子学，使用的硅光子学应用程序，以及用于集成电路的3D集成的插入器。 3D制造技术以三种方式优于传统的半导体制造：1）制造时间的原型制造时间减少了100倍，从而节省了成本并提高了研发周期的速度； 2）通过用一种工具替换多个制造工具来大大降低资本支出； 3）直接创建复杂的3D结构，从基于光刻的制造可用的有限挤出的2D几何形状上显着改善。此外，3D制造能力可以扩展到宏观尺度组件和影响行业，例如能源转换和航空航天，通过提供由单晶碳化硅制成的复杂的3D结构，用于极高的高温操作。拟议的项目结合了高级非线性的元素光学元件，用于对半导体材料的电化学蚀刻，以实现用于单晶硅和碳化硅的3D制造技术。尽管在该项目的工作中已经证明了基本的物理机制，但仍存在有关控制材料去除过程的重要问题，最终结构的表面质量以及可以去除材料的速率。这些问题需要解决，以了解3D制造技术的哪些应用在商业上可行。该项目的技术目标和任务旨在通过仔细的实验​​来回答这些问题，并通过获得数据确定最有前途的应用程序。将进行硅和碳化硅的实验，以探讨3D制造过程的一系列输入参数和变量的排列。这些实验的结果将进行研究和表征，以识别最佳的蚀刻参数以及这些蚀刻参数可能的蚀刻结果。在此阶段1 STTR项目的结论中，将更好地理解3D制造技术的能力，并将确定能力商业化的清晰途径。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过使用评估来支持的。基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评论标准。