Semiconductor Growth Islands With Trench-Defined Structures
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The collective production of semiconductor structures with small dimensions faces challenges due to non-uniform thickness issues on growth islands, particularly when the islands are small, leading to low fabrication yields and non-functional structures.
Innovation Solution
A process involving the formation of a crystalline semiconductor active layer on relatively large growth islands followed by trenching to define semiconductor structures, which limits the effects of non-uniformity to a few structures, allowing for high fabrication yields by decoupling growth island features from semiconductor structure features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If growth islands of small dimensions are used for collective production, then the number of semiconductor structures per substrate increases, but the thickness uniformity of the active layer deteriorates due to edge effects
Solution Approach 1:
The substrate is divided into multiple growth islands of optimized dimensions (5-20 μm diameter), where each island serves as an independent growth region. This segmentation allows the active layer to be formed with sufficient thickness uniformity on each island while maintaining a high total count of structures per substrate, thus resolving the contradiction between productivity and manufacturing precision.
2Manufacturing precision
If growth islands of large dimensions are used, then the thickness uniformity of the active layer improves, but the number of semiconductor structures per substrate decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than using a single large growth island, the substrate is segmented into multiple smaller islands (5-20 μm diameter). This segmentation strategy maintains thickness uniformity on each individual island while achieving high overall productivity through the collective contribution of numerous islands across the substrate surface.
3Manufacturing precision
If photolithography is used to define semiconductor structures on small growth islands, then the precision of structure definition improves, but the fabrication complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The growth islands are pre-formed with optimized dimensions (5-20 μm diameter) and appropriate spacing during the substrate fabrication stage. This preliminary action eliminates the need for subsequent photolithography steps to define the structure locations, thereby maintaining high precision while significantly reducing fabrication complexity and cost.
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 significantly improves fabrication yields by minimizing the impact of non-uniformity at the edges of growth islands, enabling the production of a high number of functional semiconductor structures with uniform thickness.
Implementation Method 1
forming a crystalline semiconductor active layer on the growth islands
Data Source
AI summary
A process for collectively fabricating a plurality of semiconductor structures comprises providing a substrate including a carrier having a main face, a dielectric layer on the main face of the carrier and a plurality of crystalline semiconductor growth islands on the dielectric layer. At least one crystalline semiconductor active layer is formed on the growth islands. After the step of forming the active layer, trenches are formed in the active layer and in the growth islands in order to define the plurality of semiconductor structures.