Issue 7, 2021

Flexible single-crystalline GaN substrate by direct deposition of III-N thin films on polycrystalline metal tape

Abstract

Flexible electronics and mechanically bendable devices based on Group III-N semiconductor materials are emerging; however, there are several challenges in manufacturing, such as cost reduction, device stability and flexibility, and device-performance improvement. To overcome these limitations, it is necessary to replace the brittle and expensive semiconductor wafers with single-crystalline flexible templates for a new-bandgap semiconductor platform. The substrates in the new concept of semiconductor materials have a hybrid structure consisting of a single-crystalline III-N thin film on a flexible metal tape substrate which provides a convenient and scalable roll-to-roll deposition process. We present a detailed study of a unique and simple direct epitaxial growth technique for crystallinity transformation to deliver single-crystalline GaN thin film with highly oriented grains along both a-axis and c-axis directions on a flexible and polycrystalline copper tape. A 2-dimensional (2D) graphene having the same atomic configuration as the (0001) basal plane of wurtzite structure is employed as a seed layer which plays a key role in following the III-N epitaxy growth. The DC reactive magnetron sputtering method is then applied to deposit an AlN layer under optimized conditions to achieve preferred-orientation growth. Finally, single-crystalline GaN layers (∼1 μm) are epitaxially grown using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on the biaxially-textured buffer layer. The flexible single-crystalline GaN film obtained using this method provides a new way for a wide-bandgap semiconductor platform pursuing flexible, high-performance, and versatile device technology.

Graphical abstract: Flexible single-crystalline GaN substrate by direct deposition of III-N thin films on polycrystalline metal tape

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Sep 2020
Accepted
28 Dec 2020
First published
28 Dec 2020

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021,9, 2243-2251

Author version available

Flexible single-crystalline GaN substrate by direct deposition of III-N thin films on polycrystalline metal tape

S. Shervin, M. Moradnia, M. K. Alam, T. Tong, M. Ji, J. Chen, S. Pouladi, T. Detchprohm, R. Forrest, J. Bao, R. D. Dupuis and J. Ryou, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021, 9, 2243 DOI: 10.1039/D0TC04634E

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