k-Space Associates Inc of Dexter, MI, USA (which supplies instrumentation and software for surface science and thin-film technology applications) and the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly, New York’s high-tech educational ecosystem, formed by merging the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and SUNY Institute of Technology) have announced a joint collaborative effort in III-nitride materials research.
The focus is to improve III-nitride material quality, growth parameters, and device performance through use of the kSA Integrated Control for Epitaxy tool (kSA ICE) to provide in-situ measurements of film stress, temperature and growth rate. Real-time stress evolution information during growth should result in the substantial reduction of the number of experiments that are currently required to obtain high-quality III-nitride device structures with multiple heterojunctions, says the firm.
In the collaborative R&D effort, k-Space has donated a complete ICE tool to SUNY Poly associate professor of nanoengineering Dr Shadi Shahedipour-Sandvik’s research group and provided engineering assistance to fully integrate and test the ICE in-situ metrology tool on the college’s D-180 metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor.
“We supplied an ICE tool to the SUNY CNSE group with the goal of providing them with high-quality real-time metrology required for their research while receiving feedback on the performance of our tool,” says k-Space’s CEO Darryl Barlett. “Shadi and her group have far exceeded our expectations. For example, their research in III-nitride buffer development for integration on to both sapphire and silicon substrates makes excellent use of our in-situ film stress technology, kSA MOS. We are anxious to share these results when published,” he adds.
“Furthering [New York State] Governor Andrew Cuomo’s high-tech public-private partnership blueprint for growth and educational opportunities, we are thrilled to work with k-Space, utilizing their top-of-the-line k-Space Integrated Control for Epitaxy tool to enable in-situ measurement of growth stress evolution,” says Shahedipour-Sandvik. “This system, one of only a few available to academics, is an enabling tool that is sure to speed up the process of discovery and development,” she adds. “Our current NSF-, Army- and NASA-funded projects are focused on the development of novel single-photon UV detectors, high-power transistors, and fundamental research into non-polar III-nitride growth,” Shahedipour-Sandvik continues, commenting that her group will be able to gain real-time growth-related information using the kSA ICE system. “The use of this tool ensures greater process control and it furthers the advanced research that is ongoing at the world-class $20bn Albany NanoTech Complex,” she notes, adding that they will provide k-Space with detailed data that can advance their knowledge of materials behavior, as the tool enables a platform for educating undergraduate and graduate students.
