Background: III-V compound semiconductor materials comprise elements from the third group (such as Al Ga and In) and fifth group (such as N P As and Sb) of the periodic table. It has become a trend for both scientific research and semiconductor industry to combine the high-speed III-V semiconductors as both electronic and optoelectronic devices with low-cost Si circuitry. Integration of III-V functional devices on Si substrates was generally achieved by epitaxial growth of III-V material layers on Si or by directly bonding of III-V semiconductor layers with the Si wafer. Most methods are not compatible with CMOS process due to their complicated procedures or strong changes to the surface morphology of bonding layer set aside the ability to arbitrarily define structures at any location and with any shape in a planar CMOS-like fabrication process. Presently need an improved way to: (1) integrate III-V semiconductors onto Si that is compatible with current CMOS fabrication procedure (2) cause minimum or zero crystal defects to the bonded semiconductor layers and (3) enable further fabrication of advanced functional devices using the bonded layers atop functional CMOS circuitry without degraded performance. Technology Description: Electrical engineers from UC San Diego have developed a novel wafer bonding method for integrating bulk or thin film functional semiconductor materials (III-V compounds) to a rigid host substrate (e.g. Si wafer). Specifically this invention exploits a solid-state reaction between the functional semiconductor layer and a metal layer that is pre-deposited and optionally pre-patterned on the rigid host substrate a low temperature heat treatment (< 250 C) and a fast bonding process. This novel wafer bonding process reduces the critical requirements of extremely low surface roughness (< 0.5 nm) for both the functional semiconductors and the host substrate enables multiple layers of functional semiconductors for bonding to the host substrate with precise locations and provides the platform to fabricate advanced electronic and optoelectronic devices utilizing the transferred functional semiconductors on Si all in a CMOS compatible fabrication process. This technology also teaches the novel conceptual design of “Self-aligned Electrical Contacts (SAEC)” in which the pre-patterned electrical metal contacts on the host substrate play the roles of bonding with functional semiconductors and also as conductive electrical leads to the outer electrodes. To summarize this patent-pending technology demonstrates the first prototype for integrating III-V (or other functional semiconductor) materials onto rigid host substrate (for example Si) by a solid-state reaction between the III-V semiconductor and the metal layer pre-defined on the host substrate. Applications: This invention enables the integration of high-mobility III-V transistor layers such as InGaAs atop Si CMOS circuits. It also enables the integration of the high-speed optoelectronic elements made from InP (waveguides modulators switches and photodetectors) that are necessary for optical transmission with large data rate and bandwidth atop a Si CMOS circuit. This has a huge potential market for big data centers and on-chip optical processing in microprocessor chips. Further light emission (Lasers light emitting diodes) and detection (photodetectors photoconductors photovoltaic cells) made of III-V materials can be integrated with this invention on Si CMOS.
1) Tolerance to surface imperfections. 2) Compatibility to Si CMOS process. 3) Integration to a variety of substrates. 4) Possibility of multi-layer stacking. 5) “Self-aligned electrical contacts (SAEC)” for III-V transistors on Si. This method may lead the way to very short-channel high-performance devices.