Lehigh Photonics and Nanoelectronics Building HPS-CVD Reactor

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Lehigh University's Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (CPN) is creating a new high-pressure spatial chemical vapor deposition (HPS-CVD) reactor.

The interdisciplinary faculty team, co-led by professors Nelson Tansu and Siddha Pimputkar, has recently secured funding from the NSF's Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program to create the system. Completion is expected by January 2019.

The system will enable new capabilities in material synthesis that include growth under extremely high-pressure conditions, growth under extremely high temperatures, the ability to integrate new elements and the ability to integrate highly dissimilar materials.

"We are truly excited to have the opportunity to build a next-generation reactor with the capability of growing new materials under extreme conditions," Tansu said. "The ability to have a reactor capable of growing unconventional III-nitride semiconductors and oxynitride materials, and potentially integrating them with other 2D layered materials, will allow us to make novel and promising materials, to answer fundamental questions of these new materials and to use these new phenomena for building groundbreaking devices."

When completed, the reactor will enable the unprecedented growth of group III-nitride and oxynitride semiconductors. These wide bandgap semiconductors will have an impact in the development of device technologies with applications in energy efficiency and renewable energy, smart vehicle and power delivery systems, optical communications and the Internet of Things.

The MRI program is also providing support for graduate students working closely with the faculty team to design, build and optimize the reactor and relevant processes. This new reactor design will also be scalable for potential future technology transfer.

"The goal of CPN is to transform the science of photonics and nanoelectronics in ways that help us develop material devices and device architecture to meet society's grand challenges,” Tansu said. “By combining a strong foundation in computational, materials, devices and integrated systems with core expertise in photonics and nanoelectronics, we enable faculty and students to work on advancing the frontiers of science and technology with ambitious, long-term vision.”

The new reactor will complement CPN's existing semiconductor epitaxy, nanofabrication and advanced device characterization capabilities. The instrument will also provide a boost to Lehigh's semiconductor materials activities.