(Invited) Si, SiGe, Ge, and III-V Semiconductor Nanomembranes and Nanowires Enabled by SiGe Epitaxy

Abstract

SiGe epitaxy in conjuction with selective etching lends itself as an excellent method for manufacturing of nanomembranes and nanowires for a variety of semiconductor materials and nano-geometries. Early device application of this technique has been demonstrated for the device architecture of Silicon-On-Nothing (SON) MOSFET and localized SON MOSFET allowing accommodation of a SOI-type MOSFET on a bulk Si wafer. In the meantime, this approach has been successfully extended to multichannel and multi-nanowire devices. Together with the availability of thin Ge layers (e.g. by virtue of Ge condensation), SiGe epitaxy opens up the possibility of a heterogenous co-integration of high efficiency III-V multijunction solar cells, III-V complementary logic, thermovoltaic device structures, lasers, modulators and detectors with Si-based electronics collocated on the same Si substrate. SiGeC epitaxial layers offer an additional engineering window for lattice mismatch and stress control, as well for achieving desirable selectivities of the required selective etches. Furthermore, the nanomembranes and nanowires made available by SiGe epitaxy and selective etches on ubiquitous Si substrates are excellent vehicles for exploration of the differences between the material properties of 3D (bulk)) and 2D (nanomembranes) and 1D (nanowire) systems.