Feasibility of fabricating large-area inorganic crystalline semiconductor devices

Abstract

Generally, group III-V compound semiconductor devices are believed to exhibit high performance; however, their applications are limited because of their high fabrication costs. This problem primarily stems from the fact that the fabrication process involves low-throughput and high-temperature metalorganic chemical vapor deposition growth on expensive bulk single-crystal substrates. To fabricate highperformance, large-area III-V semiconductor devices, such as solar cells or displays, at a reasonable cost, development of a high-throughput, low-temperature growth technique on low-cost substrates is important. We have recently discovered that using pulsed sputtering deposition as a growth technique allows the synthesis of device-quality III-V semiconductors even at room temperature. This reduction in the growth temperature allows utilization of various large-area, low-cost substrates that have not previously been used for the growth of III-V compound semiconductors. This chapter describes the feasibility of fabricating large-area inorganic crystalline devices based on group III nitrides.