Among the key improvements Sybilla equipment is bringing to CBE technique, we can mention:
- Uniform coatings
Main assets and parameter | ABCD-technology
○ ABCD Technology holds several patents related to effusive source and reactor design that allow very precise control of the growth conditions to achieve uniform (1-2%), multi-element materials even on very large substrates (up to 18” demonstrated, but even larger equipment can be made available) without any substrate rotation or planetary motion.
○ Furthermore, we have developed mathematical models and Monte Carlo simulations to fully exploit the technology, drastically reducing deposition chamber size and footprint while still retaining good thin film homogeneity. Pumping unit sizes and gas phase interactions also have been greatly reduced.
- Combinatorial with graded flows
○ In addition to uniform coatings, we can achieve a plurality of highly controlled and customized chemical precursor impinging rates on a single wafer (gradients according to our mathematical models) to rapidly investigate and optimize material properties and processes as a function of the growth rates or layer thicknesses.
○ If several precursors are mixed, we can also achieve composition gradients on a single wafer (combinatorial approach) to obtain complex phase diagrams and rapidly explore material properties or investigate decomposition interactions between the various species to qualify and quantify chemical reaction kinetics on the substrate surface.
- Additive growth and Beam assisted processes
○ Our unique solution results from combining oriented chemical precursor beams under high vacuum with beam irradiation (light, electrons, or further chemical reactive species) to selectively modify the material properties during growth and achieve embedded 3D structures at the sub-micro scales.
○ To modify the growth rates, we can either control the spatial distribution of the injected energy or the precursor flows, with a precision ranging from a few 10′s of nanometres up to a few microns per hour as a function of the technique used.
○ High vacuum conditions (better than 10-5 mbar) guarantee that no interactions between the precursors molecules and the energetic beams occurs in the gas phase with highly reduced deposition taking place on the windows.
○ Aside from the ability to investigate chemical composition, to enhance our combinatorial facility, we have developed a 3D-printing-like approach with stencil masks enabling the structure, size and shapes of nanostructures to be varied with time across a single substrate. This micro-nano-combinatorial approach provides the possibility to investigate the variation of nano-size effects over material properties with sub-micrometric resolution.
○ Laser-assisted deposition can also pattern the morphology, chemical composition or crystalline phase or simply improve the material quality at lower temperatures.
- Performances and assets
○ From epitaxial quality up to nanorod or highly porous thin films can be achieved
○ Growth rates: from 10 nm / hour to 10 microns / hour depending on material and desired functional properties quality.
○ Single substrate size from 4” (100 mm) to higher than 18” (450 mm) or multi-wafers
○ Capacity to switch between different materials during the process or in successive batches with low cross contamination.
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