RASIRC Inc of San Diego, CA, USA (whose products purify and deliver ultra-pure liquids and gases) has renewed its funding agreement with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) for on-going semiconductor processing research. The gift donation supports one student for one year. RASIRC made a similar gift donation last year. RASIRC manufactures BRUTE hydrogen peroxide and hydrazine vaporizers for emerging atomic layer deposition (ALD) applications.
"Our ongoing research focuses on solving difficult materials problems associated with emerging semiconductor technology," says professor Andrew Kummel of the Department of Chemistry. "Financial and technical support from RASIRC aids our efforts to create new films and passivation layers for continuous shrinkage of semiconductor devices."
As part of the agreement, RASIRC provides BRUTE Peroxide and BRUTE Hydrazine materials for experimentation. The UCSD team has produced and published findings from these materials during the previous year of research. Chemists and engineers from both organizations regularly collaborate on research and share their findings. Research covers the passivation of silicon germanium (SiGe) channel materials and development of new low-temperature deposition methods for metal nitrides.
"UCSD is a great partner and we look forward to working with the team to perfect novel new chemistries that solve very difficult problems where traditional methods do not work," says RASIRC's chief technology officer Daniel Alvarez.
Kummel's group is focused on understanding and imaging chemical processing at the atomic level. Current projects include: (1) in-situ cleaning and functionalization of SiGe, Ge and InGaAs for defect-free interfaces on FinFET sidewalls and contacts; (2) selective etching and ALD on semiconductors and insulators; (3) non-covalent functionalization of two-dimensional semiconductors; and (4) nano-scale synthesis of silica nanoshells for tumor ultrasound imaging and ablation.
