CD Laboratory for New semiconductor materials based on functionalized hydrosilanes

This CD Laboratory researches alternative, particularly energy-efficient and sustainable methods for the production of high-quality silicon layers that can be used for numerous IT applications.

Semiconductors are of central importance for a wide range of modern technical devices and industrial value chains - from highly automated cars to supercomputers, from cloud systems to space travel: silicon is still the most widely used material in industry, especially in the ‘c-Si’ variant, which is available in single-crystal wafer form. However, modern production technology for c-Si means that only 25% of the original silicon can be used effectively, resulting in high energy consumption and an enormous waste problem.

Researchers are currently looking at hydrosilanes, chemical compounds that are primarily made up of silicon and hydrogen atoms, as a possible alternative: Certain linear, branched and cyclic derivatives of this class of compounds decompose into pure silicon when they are subjected to liquid phase deposition (LPD) at over 300 degrees Celsius. In this way, high-quality silicon layers can be produced on the basis of these compounds, which are liquid at room temperature, free of carbon and oxygen and accessible in high purity.

However, as the literature only offers isolated reports on the application of this principle for the production of functional silicon films, the CD Laboratory team is now devoting itself to in-depth basic research in this area: firstly, novel functionalised hydrosilanes are to be synthesised and characterised, in the course of which a synthetic library of previously unknown representatives of this class of compounds will be created. In addition, the knowledge gained will also be transferred to hydrogermanes. Secondly, these new derivatives will be used as precursors for LPD (as well as for other separation techniques such as vapour phase deposition). And finally, the aim is not only to analyse the processes, but also to test the resulting processed functional silicon layers for relevant parameters (morphology, thickness, conductivity, element distribution, absorption properties, etc.).

Based on the basic research of the CD Laboratory, previously unknown methods for the production of silicon heterostructures are to be developed, for which in turn new classes of functionalized derivatives will be used: This would be a major step forward for academic and industrial electronics re-search, which - thanks to greater production efficiency and far less waste - would benefit industry, end customers and the environment alike.