Epitaxial Film Growth and Characterization of Stable and Metastable Gallium-Aluminum-Oxide Polymorphs

稳定和亚稳定镓铝氧化物多晶型物的外延膜生长和表征

• 批准号: 2324375
• 负责人: Lisa Porter
• 金额: $ 48.86万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2324375&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Epitaxial; Film; Growth; Characterization; Stable

Nontechnical description:Ubiquitous in every-day life, semiconductors are critical components in industrial manufacturing, communications, transportation, energy conversion and transmission, and many other applications. The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, which provides more than $50 billion to increase domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors, further highlights the critical importance of semiconductor research to U.S. national security and the economy. This research project creates scientific knowledge to produce a novel semiconductor alloy system and forms a platform for the development and manufacturing of future semiconductor devices that can operate in extreme environments. The capability for semiconductor devices to operate at higher temperatures and higher powers translates to substantial energy savings and more efficient and robust renewable energy technologies, such as long-range electric vehicles. As part of the future workforce, graduate and undergraduate students gain a broad set of skills in new processing methods and advanced characterization tools that are needed in the semiconductor industry. Outreach activities also educate middle/high-school students about semiconductors and related materials to inspire them to consider careers in STEM. The materials and growth recipes resulting from this research advance semiconductor R&D activities: external research groups can produce or acquire semiconductor films through training on the equipment located in Carnegie Mellon University’s clean room user facility, requesting fee-for-service films from clean room staff, or through an established research collaboration with the principal investigator.Technical description:This project is a research investigation on the growth and characterization of different phases, or polymorphs, of gallium-aluminum-oxide (AGO) epitaxial films, which have enormous potential for high-efficiency power-electronic devices that can operate in extreme conditions. The ability to alloy gallium oxide with Al to form different polymorphs of AGO with unique properties and tunable, ultra-wide bandgaps that depend on Al content presents a vast materials system with potential to form a platform for both established and novel semiconductor devices. As such, an ultimate goal of this project is to achieve unprecedented control over the phase content and microstructure of AGO semiconductor epitaxial films. However, the understanding of how to control the growth of one phase versus another in this material system is very limited. Using chemical vapor deposition to produce the films, this research contributes to the understanding of how thermodynamic and kinetic variables can be used to control the growth of stable and metastable polymorphs of AGO as a function of Al content. Prior experimental and theoretical studies serve as points of reference and inform the experimental approach. Advanced materials characterization tools are employed to identify the micro-/ nano-structure, phase content and composition in the films and reveal such phenomena as interdiffusion and phase transitions within the film and at the film/substrate interface, which determine the nature of the resulting film growth. Electrical measurements of films showing optimum structural characteristics uncover properties that are relevant for future electronic devices based on these materials.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.

非技术描述：每天生命中的普遍存在，半导体是工业制造，通信，运输，能源转换和传播以及许多其他应用中的关键组成部分。 《美国筹码与科学法》提供了超过500亿美元以增加国内研究和半导体制造，进一步凸显了半导体研究对美国国家安全和经济的至关重要。该研究项目创建了科学知识，以产生一种新型的半导体合金系统，并为开发和制造未来可以在极端环境中运行的半导体设备而形成平台。半导体设备在较高温度和较高功率下运行的能力转化为二级能源节省以及更有效，更强大的可再生能源技术，例如远程电动汽车。作为未来劳动力的一部分，毕业生和本科生在半导体行业中获得了新的处理方法和高级表征工具的广泛技能。外展活动还向中学/高中生教育半导体和相关材料，以激发他们考虑STEM的职业。这项研究产生的材料和增长食谱通过对卡内基梅隆大学的清洁室用户设施进行培训，要求从干净的室人员提供费用服务，或通过与主要研究人员的既定研究合作：索取既有研究的研究：the the Project oferty Issplation.technol.tecript ofter.technol.tecript ofter.technical contract：多晶型物，镀铝铝氧化物（AGO）的外延膜，它们具有巨大的高效电力电动器件的潜力，可以在极端条件下运行。与Al合合氧化铝合金的能力，可以形成AGO的不同多晶型物，具有独特的特性和可调的，超宽的带镜，这些依赖于Al含量具有庞大的材料系统，具有为已建立和新型半导体设备形成平台的巨大材料。因此，该项目的最终目的是实现对AGO半导体外延膜的相位含量和微观结构的前所未有的控制。但是，在该材料系统中如何控制一个阶段与另一个阶段的增长的理解非常有限。使用化学蒸气沉积来产生膜，这项研究有助于理解热力学和动力学变量如何使用AL含量的函数来控制AGO AGO稳定和亚稳态的多晶型物的生长。先前的实验和理论研究是参考点，并为实验方法提供了信息。采用高级材料表征工具来识别膜中的微/纳米结构，相位含量和组成，并揭示薄膜和膜/底物界面中的扩散和相变的现象，这些现象确定了所得膜生长的性质。基于这些材料的未来电子设备相关的最佳结构特征的膜的电测量结果。本奖反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响评估标准来通过评估来表现出珍贵的支持。