Amorphous Substrate Nitride Semiconductor Growth via Metal Mediator
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge lies in growing high-quality nitride single crystals for semiconductor devices, as existing substrates like sapphire or silicon carbide are expensive and limited in size, making it difficult to manufacture cost-effective nitride semiconductor devices with uniform lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients.
Innovation Solution
A stacked structure is developed using an amorphous substrate with a metal layer, buffer layer, and mask layer, where semiconductor elements with a III-V group-based compound composition are grown through holes in the mask layer, achieving a preferred orientation and reduced lattice mismatch, allowing for the growth of rod-shaped or pyramid-shaped GaN, GaInN, AlGaN, and AlGaInN semiconductors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a sapphire substrate or SiC substrate is used to grow nitride single crystal, then the quality of nitride single crystal is improved, but the cost increases and the size is significantly limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a metal layer as an intermediary between the amorphous substrate and the nitride semiconductor layer. This metal layer serves as a mediator that provides the necessary crystalline structure and lattice matching properties to enable high-quality nitride crystal growth without requiring expensive sapphire or SiC substrates. The metal layer translates the amorphous substrate into a suitable platform for epitaxial growth.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a copied crystalline structure by forming a metal layer with specific crystal orientations (HCP or FCC structures) that mimics the beneficial properties of single crystal substrates. This copied structure provides the necessary lattice framework for growing high-quality nitride semiconductors without using actual single crystal substrates, thereby reducing cost and enabling larger sizes.
2Ease of manufacture
If a heterogeneous substrate is used to grow nitride single crystal, then the growth process is enabled, but the lattice mismatch increases and manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the crystalline parameters of the substrate system by introducing a metal layer with specific crystal structures (HCP or FCC) and controlled thickness (5 nm to 50 nm). This parameter change enables the system to achieve suitable lattice matching for nitride semiconductor growth while maintaining compatibility with amorphous substrates, thereby improving manufacturing precision without sacrificing ease of manufacture.
3Ease of manufacture
If an amorphous substrate is used directly to grow semiconductor, then the cost is reduced and size is enlarged, but the preferred orientation and structural integrity are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The metal layer acts as an intermediary that bridges the amorphous substrate and the nitride semiconductor. It provides the necessary crystalline framework and preferred orientation (C-axis direction) that would otherwise be absent on an amorphous substrate, thereby maintaining structural integrity and reliability while enabling cost reduction and size enlargement.
Solution Approach 2:
The metal layer is prepared in advance with specific crystal orientations and properties before the nitride semiconductor growth begins. This preliminary action ensures that the substrate is pre-configured to support high-quality crystal growth, providing preferred orientation and structural foundation before the actual semiconductor layer is deposited.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the growth of semiconductor elements with a preferred orientation on an inexpensive amorphous substrate, enhancing the scalability and cost-effectiveness of nitride semiconductor devices while maintaining structural integrity similar to single crystal substrates.
Implementation Method 1
a buffer layer formed on the metal layer; a mask layer formed on the buffer layer and having a plurality of holes exposing the buffer layer; and a plurality of semiconductor elements grown from the areas of the buffer layer exposed by the plurality of holes of the mask layer so as to extend through the plurality of holes of the mask layer
Implementation Method 2
A lattice mismatch of the metal layer with respect to each of the plurality of semiconductor elements is equal to or less than about 20%
Data Source
AI summary
A stacked structure may include semiconductors or semiconductor layers grown on an amorphous substrate. A light-emitting device and a solar cell may include the stacked structure including the semiconductors grown on the amorphous substrate. A method of manufacturing the stacked structure, and the light-emitting device and the solar cell including the stacked structure may involve growing a crystalline semiconductor layer on an amorphous substrate.