Current Research Projects
Semiconductor film transfer process Concept of "flexible devices"
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| [ Electronics and Information Technology ] |
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Term : April 2003 to March 2008 ( 5-Year Project )
Proiect Leader : Hiroshi Fujioka |
It is well known that today's information-driven society relies heavily upon
semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits, light emitting diodes, and
lasers. These devices are usually fabricated on single crystalline semiconductor
wafers. However, the use of single crystalline wafers imposes serious restrictions
on the device area and makes the devices expensive. Recently, we have found
that high-quality semiconductor thin films can be grown on metal substrates
with large grains using nitride buffer layers. The use of the semiconductor
films grown on the metal substrates is advantageous over conventional semiconductor
device fabrication processes when they are used for large-area and low-costapplications.
Since metal substrates and semiconductor films show totally different chemical
and physical properties, it is quite easy to separate the semiconductor films
from the metal substrates, suggesting that we can put large-area semiconductor
films on any materials and make all the structural materials intelligent. This
technique is especially attractive for transferring the semiconductor films to
polymer substrates because the combination of these two materials enables us
to fabricate soft and transparent large-area devices at low cost. We believe
that this project will open the gateway for flexible devices that are free of
the constraints of brittleness, small size, and high cost of semiconductor wafers.
Contents of Research
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Fig. 1
Electrons traveling in a semiconductor film grown on a metal substrate. |
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Fig. 2
Multi-chamber MBE system for epitaxial growth of semiconductor films an metal substrates. |
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1) Development of fabrication
processes for high-performance devices on metal substrates.
To fabricate high-performance semiconductor devices, electrons must travel at
high speed in the crystals. This can be achieved when the atoms that comprise
the semiconductor crystals align periodically without impurities as shown in
Fig. I. We will develop a process for growing well-ordered semiconductor films
with low impurity concentration on metal substrates using the multi-chamber MBE
system shown in Fig. 2. The use of the semiconductor films grown on the metal
substrates is advantageous over conventional semiconductor device fabrication
processes when they are used for large-area and low-cost applications.
2) Development of the transfer technique for semiconductorfilms.
Since metal substrates and semiconductor films show totally different chemical
and physical properties, it is quite easy to separate the semiconductor films
from the. metal substrates, suggesting that we can put large-area semiconductor
films on any materials and make all the structural materials intelligent. This
technique is especially attractive for transferring the semiconductor films to
polymer substrates because the combination of these two materials enables us
to fabricate soft and transparent large-area devices at low cost. We believe
that this project will open the gateway for flexible devices that are free of
the constraints of brittleness, small size, and high cost of semiconductor wafers. |
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Fig. 3
Schematic illustration of semiconductor film transfer processes. |
Organization of Research
Structure :
Project Leader, several regular researchers, several part-time researchers, and several collaborative research members from the University of Tokyo |
| Location : Kanagawa Science Park (KSP) East Building 3rd Floor |
E-mail :  |
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