BRITE Pivot: Co-Design of Structures and Processes for Atomically Precise and Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Semiconductor Heterostructures

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

This grant supports research that develops new knowledge on manufacturing of gallium nitride-based heterostructures. Gallium nitride is a promising candidate for next-generation power electronics. Gallium nitride heterostructure-based electronics have been theoretically predicted to operate at higher power densities and higher temperatures with a thousand times better performance than state-of-the-art silicon technologies. However, defects generated during the heterostructure manufacturing process and self-heating during device operation are two major obstacles that limit their performance, which challenges today’s power electronics, microelectronics, and photonics. This research develops capabilities and understanding to address these challenges by developing computational tools, mechanistic understanding, and design guidelines for co-design of gallium nitride-based heterostructures, a methodology that can also be used to co-design other semiconductor devices. This highly interdisciplinary project serves as a rich intellectual and scientific training ground for graduate and undergraduate students to ensure that all students involved in the project are competitive in a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional scientific workplace. The project responds to the Chips and Science Act by contributing to the education and training of the next generation scientists and engineers in semiconductor manufacturing. The project is co-funded by the NNI Special Initiative. Nitrides such as gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) cannot be grown from stoichiometric melts due to their high melting temperatures and high nitrogen decomposition pressures. Epitaxy is the only tool for scalable nanomanufacturing of GaN heterostructures. To epitaxially grow a GaN heterostructure with minimum defect density and thermal resistance requires precise understanding of the epitaxial growth process as well as the resulting microstructural, mechanical, and thermal transport properties. This research develops a convergent approach, building on the foundation of mechanics of materials, to holistically understand and address these challenges. It hypothesizes that (1) structural and growth parameters can be co-designed to control growth dynamics to minimize defect formation during the epitaxial growth of heterostructures, and (2) there is a collective behavior of interfaces, defects, and phonons in semiconductor heterostructures that can be optimized to minimize thermal resistance of the heterostructures. The research builds a unified simulation tool to predict and visualize highly nonequilibrium processes such as epitaxy, defect formation, and phonon scattering across length and time scales, to test the two hypotheses, and to co-design the structure and process to achieve the minimum defect density and thermal resistance for high performance GaN-based heterostructures. This research enables the co-design of structures, processes, and properties for atomically precise and scalable nanomanufacturing of a variety of semiconductor heterostructures. 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.