Semiconductor Materials
Our semiconductor expertise and class 100 cleanroom enable thin-film electronics, printed electronics, and optoelectronic device development.
A semiconductor is a material that is neither a good conductor of electricity nor a good insulator but has properties of electrical conductivity somewhere between the two. It conducts more electricity when heat, light, or voltage is added. This basic functionality aids many different devices, including diodes, switches, sensors, and lasers.
We have deep expertise and experience designing, growing, processing, qualifying, and commercializing semiconductor technologies. Our experts can develop a full process, from device design through to manufacturing and qualification, in our on-site, class 100 Cleanroom. In addition, we have processes for photo and e-beam lithography and patterning, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, dopant activation, silicon recrystallization, and wet and dry etching. We are experts in the following devices and processes:
In thin-film electronics:
- Transistors and sensors made by depositing and patterning films of active semiconductors, dielectrics, and metals on various supporting substrates
- Amorphous silicon, metal oxides, and poly-silicon (LTPS) processes
- TFT arrays and backplanes, photodiodes, X-ray detectors, displays, ultrasonic imaging, and neutron imaging
- Flexible and transparent electronic designs, enabled by thin-film devices
In printed electronics:
- Transistors and sensors are made by digitally printing specially formulated metallic, dielectric, and semiconducting inks
- Solution-processed materials, ink formulation, and qualification for metals, dielectrics, and organic semiconductors
- Custom printer design and multiple printing modalities, including jet, extrusion, aerosol, and screen. Development of printed and flexible sensors and actuators for temperature, humidity, stress, gas, audio speakers, and electrochemical devices
In optoelectronic devices:
- Custom design and growth of III-V semiconductor heterostructures for LEDs and laser diode fabrication
- Computational simulation of quantum well structures
- Metal Oxide Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) growth of custom-layered heterostructures for LEDs and Laser diodes
- Development and testing of emitters, detectors, and optical sub-systems