Abstract
Layer transfer techniques have been extensively explored for semiconductor device fabrication as a path to reduce costs and to form heterogeneously integrated devices. These techniques entail isolating epitaxial layers from an expensive donor wafer to form freestanding membranes. However, current layer transfer processes are still low-throughput and too expensive to be commercially suitable. Here we report a high-throughput layer transfer technique that can produce multiple compound semiconductor membranes from a single wafer. We directly grow two-dimensional (2D) materials on III–N and III–V substrates using epitaxy tools, which enables a scheme comprised of multiple alternating layers of 2D materials and epilayers that can be formed by a single growth run. Each epilayer in the multistack structure is then harvested by layer-by-layer mechanical exfoliation, producing multiple freestanding membranes from a single wafer without involving time-consuming processes such as sacrificial layer etching or wafer polishing. Moreover, atomic-precision exfoliation at the 2D interface allows for the recycling of the wafers for subsequent membrane production, with the potential for greatly reducing the manufacturing cost.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award (award number 029584-00001), the Air Force Research Laboratory (award numbers FA9453-18-2-0017 and FA9453-21-C-0717), the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Solar Energy Technologies Office (award number DE-EE0008558), and Universiti Tenaga Nasional and UNTEN R&D Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia through TNB Seed fund grant number U-TV-RD-20-10. We also acknowledge the support, in part, from Umicore, LG electronics and Rohm Semiconductor. D.S., H.-K.C. and S.H. acknowledge support from the Global Research and Development Center Program (2018K1A4A3A01064272) and the Basic Science Research Program (2021R1A4A1031900) through the NRF funded by the Korean government (MSIT).
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Jeehwan Kim conceived the idea and led the research. H.K., Y.L., K. Lu, C.S.C., K.Q. and W.K. designed the experiments. Y.L., K.Q., B.-I.P., Jekyung Kim and J.J. conducted III–N and BN growth. H.K., K. Lu and N.M.H. conducted III–V growth. H.K., K. Lu., N.M.H., K.S.K., S.L., C.K., H.W., L.K. and J. Kong developed TAC growth. D.S., H.-K.C. and S.H. conducted DFT calculations. M.A., Y.Z. and Y.S. conducted MD simulations. C.S.C., M.Z., K.S.K., S. Kang, J.P., S. Kim and J.H. conducted (S)TEM measurements. H.K., Y.L., K. Lu, C.S.C., C.C., X.Z. and S.-H.B. conducted 2DLT and 2D materials transfer. H.K., Y.L., K. Lu, K.Q., K.S.K., J.M.S., Y.B., Y.J.J., N.N.A., M.N.M.A., K. Lee and G.Y.Y. conducted characterization of thin films, BN and TAC. The manuscript was written by H.K. and Jeehwan Kim with input from all authors. All authors contributed to the analysis and discussion of the results leading to the manuscript.
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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Didier Landru, Rongming Wang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Supplementary notes 1–4 and figs. 1–12.
MD simulation of layer exfoliation from a multistack structure.
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Kim, H., Liu, Y., Lu, K. et al. High-throughput manufacturing of epitaxial membranes from a single wafer by 2D materials-based layer transfer process. Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 464–470 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01340-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01340-3
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