SBIR Phase I: Universal Crystal Growth Capsule and Novel Wafer Dicing Tool for In-Space Manufacturing

SBIR 第一阶段：用于太空制造的通用晶体生长舱和新型晶圆切割工具

• 批准号: 2419346
• 负责人: Partha Dutta
• 金额: $ 27.5万
• 依托单位: United Semiconductors, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2419346&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Universal; Crystal; Growth

The broader impact and commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is in advanced semiconductor technologies that are of critical need for emerging autonomous systems, networked sensing technologies, artificial intelligence enabled systems, aerospace, and defense surveillance systems. In-Space manufacturing under microgravity conditions enable unique materials characteristics and advanced semiconductor device designs with significantly higher performances, thus providing the most appropriate platform for meeting the technological and market demands. A novel class of semiconductor based composite materials with unique characteristics for numerous large scale emerging applications including, magnetic sensing, thermoelectrics, photovoltaic power generation, quantum computing devices, etc. will be developed. The proposed manufacturing plans will benefit the US national defense and civilian industry. The In-Space manufacturing platform will boost the yield and reliability for high performance device technologies, meeting the demand of the multi-billion US$ market. Lessons learnt from this project will accelerate the space materials production with potentially higher profit margins for sold goods and attract private sector investments in space manufacturing business. This will help the US domestic industry to gain and/or maintain leadership in many critical technology sectors. There is a need for higher throughput, higher iteration in-space R&D and manufacturing to drive to meaningful advantages, and this project will enable an acceleration of such translational R&D in semiconductors and other key sectors. Additionally, Workforce Development (WFD) for training engineers and technicians in Space based manufacturing are in perfect alignment with the priorities of the “CHIPS for America” Workforce Development plans.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to create innovative component design and manufacturing approaches for developing two critical hardware necessary for In-space manufacturing and application of high purity semiconductor grade bulk crystals. A universal crystal growth capsule design will be designed and fabricated for leveraging microgravity conditions during crystal growth and providing high throughput of space grown materials. For processing high cost, low defect content premium space grown crystals, a novel wafer dicing tool for damage-free thin film fabrication directly from ingots will be developed. The universal capsule design will incorporate advanced high temperature fluid dynamics components that are necessary for maximizing the beneficial effects of microgravity on crystal growth. The innovative wafer dicing tool architecture leverages advanced optics fabrication technologies for creating the dicing tool. The Phase 1 project will demonstrate crystal growth of single-phase alloy and multi-phase composites of semiconductor-based materials. Fabrication of micron-scale thick wafers with millimeter scale cross-section for discrete semiconductor device from bulk crystals will be demonstrated.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.

该小型企业创新研究 (SBIR) 项目的更广泛影响和商业潜力在于先进的半导体技术，这些技术对于新兴自主系统、网络传感技术、人工智能支持系统、航空航天和太空国防监视系统至关重要。微重力条件下的制造可实现独特的材料特性和具有显着更高性能的先进半导体器件设计，从而为满足技术和市场需求提供最合适的平台，具有独特特性的新型半导体复合材料，适用于众多大规模新兴应用，包括。 、磁传感、热电学、将开发光伏发电、量子计算设备等，拟议的制造计划将有利于美国国防和民用工业，将提高高性能设备技术的产量和可靠性，满足需求。该项目的经验教训将加速太空材料的生产，提高销售产品的利润率，并吸引私营部门对太空制造业务的投资，这将有助于美国国内工业获得和/或维持。在许多关键技术领域处于领先地位。需要更高的吞吐量、更高的迭代空间研发和制造才能获得有意义的优势，该项目将加速半导体和其他关键领域的此类转化研发，此外，还可以培训工程师和技术人员的劳动力发展（WFD）。太空制造与“美国芯片”劳动力发展计划的优先事项完全一致。该 SBIR 第一阶段项目建议创建创新的组件设计和制造方法，以开发太空制造和高技术应用所需的两种关键硬件。纯度半导体级将设计和制造通用晶体生长胶囊，以利用晶体生长过程中的微重力条件，并提供高通量的太空生长材料，用于处理高成本、低缺陷含量的优质太空生长晶体，这是一种用于损坏的新型晶圆切割工具。 - 将开发直接从锭制造的自由薄膜。通用胶囊设计将先进地结合高温流体动力学组件，这是最大限度地发挥微重力对晶体生长的有益影响所必需的。利用先进的光学制造技术来创建切割工具，第一阶段项目将展示单相合金和半导体基材料的多相复合材料的制造，用于离散的微米级厚晶圆。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。