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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Manipulation of Hole Spin Transport in Germanium

Downscaling of the silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor technology is expected to reach a fundamental limit soon. A paradigm shift in computing is occurring. Spin field-effect transistors are considered a candidate architecture for next-generation microelectronics. Being able to leverage the existing infrastructure for silicon, a spin field-effect transistor technology based on group IV heterostructures will have unparalleled technical and economical advantages. For the same material platform reason, germanium hole quantum dots are also considered a competitive architecture for semiconductor-based quantum technology. In this project, we investigated several approaches to creating hole devices in germanium-based materials as well as injecting hole spins in such structures. We also explored the roles of hole injection in wet chemical etching of germanium. Our main results include the demonstration of germanium metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors operated at cryogenic temperatures, ohmic current-voltage characteristics in germanium/silicon-germanium heterostructures with ferromagnetic contacts at deep cryogenic temperatures and high magnetic fields, evaluation of the effects of surface preparation on carrier mobility in germanium/silicon- germanium heterostructures, and hole spin polarization through integrated permanent magnets. These results serve as essential components for fabricating next-generation germanium-based devices for microelectronics and quantum systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

IMS Rapid Response 2023-2 (RR 2023-RND-2): Magnetic order in layered bismuthide RhMnBi 3 (Final Report)

Microelectronics are technologies (mostly theoretical at this point) to create electronic circuits with components of atomic length scale. One of the key materials innovations enabling this technology is exfoliatable two-dimensional materials. These materials allow thin sheets of only a few atoms thick to be easily created in the laboratory. More and more of these materials are reported every year, but few have been characterized in detail. Thus a major goal in materials research in pursuit of microelectronic devices is characterizing newly discovered materials to evaluate their properties. The goal of this project was the measure and understand the magnetic order in a newly discovered van der Waals magnet RhMnBi 3 . Bulk property experiments indicated very complicated magnetic behavior, with multiple phase transitions between 2K and 300K (room temperature). This potentially indicated highly sensitive and tunable magnetism appropriate for single-layer magnetic switches and sensors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Final Technical Report - Rapid Surface Microanalysis using a Low Temperature Plasma

This project focused on improving our current understanding and scientific knowledge in the area of plasma-surface interactions and plasma assisted material synthesis related to advanced microelectronics and nanotechnology. Current challenges include: controlling the interaction of Low Temperature Plasma (LTP) with a single layer of atoms to manufacture integrated circuits, continued miniaturization of integrated circuits, LTP processing of material surfaces and thin films to enable industrial scale fabrication of advanced microelectronics, synthesis of new materials, nanomaterials, nanotubes, and complex materials, Technology developed in this subtopic is of value to either (i) enable scans of surfaces (~1 sq. cm area) using various microscopies (electron, optical, other) at high resolution (micron or sub-micron resolution) rapidly (hours or days rather than years to complete a high-resolution scan of such a large surface area), or (ii) enable scans of surfaces (~1 sq. cm area) using various microscopies (electron, optical, other) at relatively low resolution rapidly, then apply algorithms to select spots for micron-scale imaging. Sputtering occurs when particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface by energetic particles from a plasma. While the degradation of the solid material and the subsequent deposition of the ejected material onto vulnerable surfaces are the usual subjects of sputtering studies, plasma science has yet to be combined with sputtering to create new diagnostics devices and systems. Small changes in the design of the plasma discharge device make it possible to create broad plasma beams for rapid scanning or small plasma beams to obtain the distribution of ejected elements with micron resolution. In the high-resolution use, the ion flux is extracted from the gas-discharge plasma and focused by a spherical emission surface to micron sizes onto the target specimen, providing very local sputtering and local elemental analysis. We call this “self-focusing”. The radiation from the excited and ionized sputtered atoms is recorded by a spectrometer through a window and fiberglass cable and analyzed with standard software packages used for optical glow discharge spectroscopy. Computer simulations of beam formation were used to verify and optimize the designs to be tested. A prototype was designed, constructed, and used to start experiments of beam formation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Experimental Determination of the Sn-Cu-Ni Phase Diagram for Pb-Free Solder Applications

The rapid increase of scrapped electrical products disposed in landfill sites is significantly influencing the environment because of the composition of the associated components. This situation has been the stimulus for the international community to issue a directive to prohibit the use of Pb-containing solders in electronic devices and effectively ban such products on the market. The Sn-Cu-Ni has become increasingly significant as it is used in several solder alloys and more generally both Cu and Ni are common substrates that interact with Sn-based solders in microelectronic applications. However, there is currently an insufficient understanding of the phase equilibria and the associated phase diagrams of many Sn alloys. The present work implemented an experimental methodology to obtain high accuracy results for the phase equilibria between one liquid and one or two intermetallic compounds. The Sn-Cu-Ni and the associated Sn-Cu and Sn-Ni binary systems have been re-evaluated and compared with the literature. The liquidus and the invariant lines were determined for the Sn-Cu-Ni ternary at the temperatures ranges of between 240 °C and 270 °C. The result will contribute to filling phase equilibria data gaps in the Sn-rich corner of the Sn-Cu-Ni alloy system.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Microstructure evolution of Ag–8Au–3Pd alloy wire during electromigration

As the continuous shrinkage of the interconnect line width in microelectronics devices, there is a growing concern about the electromigration (EM) failure of bonding wire. In addition, an innovative Ag–8Au–3Pd alloy wire has shown promise as an economical substitute for gold wire interconnects due to the cost pressure of gold in the last decade. In present study of the Ag–8Au–3Pd alloy wire, the surface diffusion occupied the dominant position during EM failure, and the activation energy was found to be 0.61 eV. In order to reveal the failure mechanism, the cross-sections of the Ag–8Au–3Pd alloy wire during EM were prepared by focused ion beam (FIB) micro-machining for electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. The microstructure evolution of the Ag–8Au–3Pd alloy wire was characterized by the grain size and grain boundary. As a result, the EM failure originates in the atom transportation, which causes grain size increasing and atom diffusion on the wire surface. - Highlights: • The activation energy of Ag–8Au–3Pd alloy wire was obtained as 0.61 eV. • During EM, the silver atoms diffused from negative to the positive terminal on the wire surface. • The microstructure (grain size and grain boundary) was characterized by FIB-EBSD. • During EM, the atom transportation was found to cause grain size growth and atom diffusion on the wire surface.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Femtosecond laser three-dimensional micro- and nanofabrication

The rapid development of the femtosecond laser has revolutionized materials processing due to its unique characteristics of ultrashort pulse width and extremely high peak intensity. The short pulse width suppresses the formation of a heat-affected zone, which is vital for ultrahigh precision fabrication, whereas the high peak intensity allows nonlinear interactions such as multiphoton absorption and tunneling ionization to be induced in transparent materials, which provides versatility in terms of the materials that can be processed. More interestingly, irradiation with tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses inside transparent materials makes three-dimensional (3D) micro- and nanofabrication available due to efficient confinement of the nonlinear interactions within the focal volume. Additive manufacturing (stereolithography) based on multiphoton absorption (two-photon polymerization) enables the fabrication of 3D polymer micro- and nanostructures for photonic devices, micro- and nanomachines, and microfluidic devices, and has applications for biomedical and tissue engineering. Subtractive manufacturing based on internal modification and fabrication can realize the direct fabrication of 3D microfluidics, micromechanics, microelectronics, and photonic microcomponents in glass. These microcomponents can be easily integrated in a single glass microchip by a simple procedure using a femtosecond laser to realize more functional microdevices, such as optofluidics and integrated photonic microdevices. The highly localized multiphoton absorption of a tightly focused femtosecond laser in glass can also induce strong absorption only at the interface of two closely stacked glass substrates. Consequently, glass bonding can be performed based on fusion welding with femtosecond laser irradiation, which provides the potential for applications in electronics, optics, microelectromechanical systems, medical devices, microfluidic devices, and small satellites. This review paper describes the concepts and principles of femtosecond laser 3D micro- and nanofabrication and presents a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art, applications, and the future prospects of this technology.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Morphology and chemical termination of HF-etched Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} surfaces

Several reports on the chemical termination of silicon nitride films after HF etching, an important process in the microelectronics industry, are inconsistent claiming N-H{sub x}, Si-H, or fluorine termination. An investigation combining infrared and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopies with atomic force and scanning electron microscopy imaging reveals that under some processing conditions, salt microcrystals are formed and stabilized on the surface, resulting from products of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} etching. Rinsing in deionized water immediately after HF etching for at least 30 s avoids such deposition and yields a smooth surface without evidence of Si-H termination. Instead, fluorine and oxygen are found to terminate a sizeable fraction of the surface in the form of Si-F and possibly Si-OH bonds. The relatively unique fluorine termination is remarkably stable in both air and water and could lead to further chemical functionalization pathways.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Electroresistance and field effect studies on manganite based heterostructure

Electronic properties of manganites are significantly important for various spintronic applications such as microelectronics, magnetic data storage, communication technologies, and memory devices. Influence of applied electric field on the room temperature charge transport in ZnO/La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3}/SrNb{sub 0.002}Ti{sub 0.998}O{sub 3} (SNTO) heterostructure has been investigated using field effect studies. Large negative and positive electroresistance has been observed in heterostructure under various possible circuit geometries. Field effect studies have been carried out using three different circuit geometries, namely: (i) ZnO as a control electrode (E{sub LZ}), (ii) SNTO as a control electrode (E{sub LS}), and (iii) shorted ZnO and SNTO as control electrodes (E{sub LZS}). For this, channel electric field (E{sub CH}) dependent variation in channel resistance (R{sub C}) (of manganite channel) and I-V (across manganite channel) under various control fields (E{sub C}) have been studied. Variation in barrier height (Φ{sub B}) with control field (E{sub C}) for different geometries has been discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Wafer-scale synthesis of multi-layer graphene by high-temperature carbon ion implantation

We report on the synthesis of wafer-scale (4 in. in diameter) high-quality multi-layer graphene using high-temperature carbon ion implantation on thin Ni films on a substrate of SiO{sub 2}/Si. Carbon ions were bombarded at 20 keV and a dose of 1 × 10{sup 15 }cm{sup −2} onto the surface of the Ni/SiO{sub 2}/Si substrate at a temperature of 500 °C. This was followed by high-temperature activation annealing (600–900 °C) to form a sp{sup 2}-bonded honeycomb structure. The effects of post-implantation activation annealing conditions were systematically investigated by micro-Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Carbon ion implantation at elevated temperatures allowed a lower activation annealing temperature for fabricating large-area graphene. Our results indicate that carbon-ion implantation provides a facile and direct route for integrating graphene with Si microelectronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Micro-structural characterization of low resistive metallic Ni germanide growth on annealing of Ni-Ge multilayer

Nickel-Germanides are an important class of metal semiconductor alloys because of their suitability in microelectronics applications. Here we report successful formation and detailed characterization of NiGe metallic alloy phase at the interfaces of a Ni-Ge multilayer on controlled annealing at relatively low temperature ∼ 250 °C. Using x-ray and polarized neutron reflectometry, we could estimate the width of the interfacial alloys formed with nanometer resolution and found the alloy stoichiometry to be equiatomic NiGe, a desirable low-resistance interconnect. We found significant drop in resistance (∼ 50%) on annealing the Ni-Ge multilayer suggesting metallic nature of alloy phase at the interfaces. Further we estimated the resistivity of the alloy phase to be ∼ 59μΩ cm.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Origin of the visible emission of black silicon microstructures

Silicon, the mainstay semiconductor in microelectronics, is considered unsuitable for optoelectronic applications due to its indirect electronic band gap that limits its efficiency as light emitter. Here, we univocally determine at the nanoscale the origin of visible emission in microstructured black silicon by cathodoluminescence spectroscopy and imaging. We demonstrate the formation of amorphous silicon oxide microstructures with a white emission. The white emission is composed by four features peaking at 1.98 eV, 2.24 eV, 2.77 eV, and 3.05 eV. The origin of such emissions is related to SiO{sub x} intrinsic point defects and to the sulfur doping due to the laser processing. Similar results go in the direction of developing optoelectronic devices suitable for silicon-based circuitry.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Note: Fabrication of a fast-response and user-friendly environmental chamber for atomic force microscopes

The atomic force microscope is one of the most widespread tools in science, but many suppliers do not provide a competitive solution to make experiments in controlled atmospheres. Here, we provide a solution to this problem by fabricating a fast-response and user-friendly environmental chamber. We corroborate the correct functioning of the chamber by studying the formation of local anodic oxidation on a silicon sample (biased under opposite polarities), an effect that can be suppressed by measuring in a dry nitrogen atmosphere. The usefulness of this chamber goes beyond the example here presented, and it could be used in many other fields of science, including physics, mechanics, microelectronics, nanotechnology, medicine, and biology.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Quantitative analysis of doped/undoped ZnO nanomaterials using laser assisted atom probe tomography: Influence of the analysis parameters

In the last decade, atom probe tomography has become a powerful tool to investigate semiconductor and insulator nanomaterials in microelectronics, spintronics, and optoelectronics. In this paper, we report an investigation of zinc oxide nanostructures using atom probe tomography. We observed that the chemical composition of zinc oxide is strongly dependent on the analysis parameters used for atom probe experiments. It was observed that at high laser pulse energies, the electric field at the specimen surface is strongly dependent on the crystallographic directions. This dependence leads to an inhomogeneous field evaporation of the surface atoms, resulting in unreliable measurements. We show that the laser pulse energy has to be well tuned to obtain reliable quantitative chemical composition measurements of undoped and doped ZnO nanomaterials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Inorganic/organic nanocomposites: Reaching a high filler content without increasing viscosity using core-shell structured nanoparticles

Extensive research is being conducted on the development of inorganic/organic nanocomposites for a wide variety of applications in microelectronics, biotechnologies, photonics, adhesives, or optical coatings. High filler contents are usually required to fully optimize the nanocomposites properties. However, numerous studies demonstrated that traditional composite viscosity increases with increasing the filler concentration reducing therefore significantly the material processability. In this work, we synthesized inorganic/organic core-shell nanocomposites with different shell thicknesses. By reducing the shell thickness while maintaining a constant core size, the nanoparticle molecular mass decreases but the nanocomposite filler fraction is correlatively increased. We performed viscosity measurements, which clearly highlighted that intrinsic viscosity of hybrid nanoparticles decreases as the molecular mass decreases, and thus, as the filler fraction increases, as opposed to Einstein predictions about the viscosity of traditional inorganic/polymer two-phase mixtures. This exceptional behavior, modeled by Mark-Houwink-Sakurada equation, proves to be a significant breakthrough for the development of industrializable nanocomposites with high filler contents.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Influence of temporary organic bond nature on the properties of compacts and ceramics

This work contains results of investigation of obtaining high thermally conductive ceramics from commercial powders of aluminum nitride and yttrium oxide by the method of monoaxial compaction of granulate. The principal scheme of preparation is proposed and technological properties of granulate are defined. Compaction conditions for simple items to use as heat removal in microelectronics and power electrical engineering have been established. Investigations of thermophysical properties of obtained ceramics and its structure by the XRD and SEM methods have been carried out. Ceramics with thermal conductivity from 172 to 174 W/m·K has been obtained as result of this work.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

High-speed modulator with interleaved junctions in zero-change CMOS photonics

A microring depletion modulator is demonstrated with T-shaped lateral p-n junctions used to realize efficient modulation while maximizing the RC limited bandwidth. The device having a 3 dB bandwidth of 13 GHz has been fabricated in a standard 45 nm microelectronics CMOS process. The cavity has a linewidth of 17 GHz and an average wavelength-shift of 9 pm/V in reverse-bias conditions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Flake like V{sub 2}O{sub 5} nanoparticles for ethanol sensing at room temperature

The versatile redox property of vanadium oxide explores it in various applications like catalysis, electrochromism, electrochemistry, energy storage, sensors, microelectronics, batteries etc., In this present work, vanadium oxide was prepared via hydrothermal route followed by calcination. The structural and lattice parameters were analysed from the powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern. The morphology and the composition of the sample were obtained from Field emission Scanning electron microscopic (FeSEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDAX) Spectrometric analysis respectively. The sensitivity, response – recovery time of the sample towards ethanol (0 ppm – 300 ppm) sensing at room temperature was measured and the present investigation on vanadium oxide nanoparticles over the flakes shows better sensitivity (30%) at room temperature.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Low-power resistive random access memory by confining the formation of conducting filaments

Owing to their small physical size and low power consumption, resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices are potential for future memory and logic applications in microelectronics. In this study, a new resistive switching material structure, TiO{sub x}/silver nanoparticles/TiO{sub x}/AlTiO{sub x}, fabricated between the fluorine-doped tin oxide bottom electrode and the indium tin oxide top electrode is demonstrated. The device exhibits excellent memory performances, such as low operation voltage (<±1 V), low operation power, small variation in resistance, reliable data retention, and a large memory window. The current-voltage measurement shows that the conducting mechanism in the device at the high resistance state is via electron hopping between oxygen vacancies in the resistive switching material. When the device is switched to the low resistance state, conducting filaments are formed in the resistive switching material as a result of accumulation of oxygen vacancies. The bottom AlTiO{sub x} layer in the device structure limits the formation of conducting filaments; therefore, the current and power consumption of device operation are significantly reduced.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗