Publications

Compliant substrate technology for dissimilar epitaxy

Floro, Jerrold A.; Follstaedt, D.M.; Klem, John F.

Strained-layer semiconductor films offer tremendous potential with regards to optoelectronic applications for high speed communications, mobile communications, sensing, and novel logic devices. It is an unfortunate reality that many of the possible film/substrate combinations that could be exploited technologically are off limits because of large differences in lattice parameters, chemical compatibilities, or thermal expansion rates. These mechanical, chemical, and thermal incompatibilities manifest themselves primarily in terms of lattice defects such as dislocations and antiphase boundaries, and in some cases through enhanced surface roughness. An additional limitation, from a production point of view, is money. Device manufacturers as a rule want the cheapest substrate possible. Freeing the heteroepitaxial world of the bonds of (near) lattice matching would vastly expand the types of working devices that could be grown. As a result, a great deal of effort has been expended finding schemes to integrate dissimilar film/substrate materials while preserving the perfection of the film layer. One such scheme receiving significant attention lately is the so-called compliant substrate approach.