About CONCEPT
Introducing CONCEPT, an EU-funded project created to change and develop alternatives to traditional silicon semiconductor technology.
By harnessing the expertise of leading European partners in chemistry, materials science, and device engineering, we’re working to create a different, sustainable approach to help the demand for powerful and energy-efficient devices.
We will use atomic layer deposition (ALD) – enabling the integration of epitaxial functional complex oxides in neuromorphic and photonic devices at low temperatures.
Why is it needed?
It’s been 50 years since the release of the first proper commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004, back in 1971. Since then, the world of technology has seen incredible advancements in semiconductor manufacturing, thanks to Moore’s Law.
Moore’s Law has been the driving force behind the doubling of circuit density and performance approximately every second year. With advances in lithographic techniques, gate oxide materials, and architecture designs, the pace of innovation has been nothing short of remarkable.
Despite this progress in semiconductor manufacturing, it’s important to acknowledge the challenges the chip manufacturers are encountering. Work has been develop to trying to make transistors smaller, but it’s reaching a point where it can’t shrink them much more. When it gets down to sizes below five nanometers, it faces new problems, getting trickier to make transistors work reliably.
The downscaling of conventional Si CMOS technology is getting close to its inherent limits. New technology is needed to enable a continued increase in computing power while at the same time lowering power consumption and sustainability. Novel techniques for low- low-temperature integration of complex oxides in the back end of line (BEOL) are crucial to enable a paradigm shift towards new enabling information and communication technology (ICT).
In addition, European resilience in the ICT field needs to be strengthened, due to the chip crisis during the COVID pandemic and confirmed by the launch of the European Chip Law. Self-sufficiency is increasingly important, which can only be achieved by strengthening the entire ICT industrial value chain, from research to production.
How?
The project focuses on developing novel epitaxial processes for pertinent materials: important ferroelectric complex oxides, and also candidates for the semiconducting electrode or channel. ALD processes are already known for some of the target materials, but they have limited scalability and require high-temperature post-deposition treatment, which is not feasible for ICT device production. The project therefore includes reactor design optimized for the most suited precursors for these materials allowing for scaled depositions to 6” wafers.
Outcomes
1. A platform for low-temperature epitaxy of functional complex oxides: processes for low-temperature atomic layer deposition for epitaxial films of key technology-enabling materials; BTO, HZO, BSO and WO3.
2. Model neuromorphic device demonstrator: FeFETs and FTJs outperform the existing memristor technology due to their fully epitaxial nature. The demonstration includes CMOS integration and will prompt similar breakthroughs in other applications, such as magnetic digital memory of MEMs.
3. Model photonics device demonstrator: a Mach-Zehnder modulator based on Lumiphase’s technology and using atomic layer deposition grown epitaxial BTO
4. A new dedicated ALD reactor: an atomic layer deposition reactor enabling complex oxide epitaxy on wafer-scale (8”) for proof-of-concept on the impact towards ICT industry.
