STTR Phase I: Germyl Silanes - Enabling Precursors for Chemical Vapor Deposition of Advanced CMOS Substrates, CMOS-Integrated MEMS, and Nano-Scale Quantum-Dot Silicon Photonics

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project constitutes the first step in the commercialization of an innovation in the manufacture of advanced complementary metal oxide (CMOS) semiconductor substrates, CMOS-integrated micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), thin film amorphous solar cells, and nano-scale quantum-dot silicon photonics. The project will demonstrate industrially scaleable syntheses of germyl silane precursors and their use to create smooth, homogeneous, fully relaxed, high-Ge content silicon germanium films through low-temperature, high-growth rate chemical vapor deposition processes. Further, through partnerships with tool makers, the project will demonstrate the use of such films to create a virtual substrate for strained silicon layers, a solar cell, and a MEMS device. The project addresses a critical need for precursors and processes that deposit such films under low temperature conditions with throughput rates that are significantly higher than those offered by existing processes. Further, the project enables the manufacture of nearly monodispsperse, chemically homogenous quantum dot arrays that can serve as silicon-based lasers and detectors. Commercially, the potential market for devices made with these technologies is predicted to exceed several billion dollars per year and exhibit double-digit growth rates over the next five years. Ge-rich SiGe films will enable higher clock speeds in microprocessors, lower power consumption in cell phones, silicon-based photonics, and more efficient solar cells. As such, the innovation will reduce energy consumption and advance the technological stature of the U.S. semiconductor, solar, MEMS, and photonics industries.