Engineered substrates, free-standing semiconductor microstructures, and related systems and methods
AssigneeLawrence Semiconductor Research Laboratory, Inc.
InventorsChantal Arena, Nupur Bhargava, Alec Fischer
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Abstract
An engineered substrate comprises a base substrate, a monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate layer epitaxially grown over the base substrate, and a monocrystalline top layer epitaxially grown over the monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate layer. The engineered substrate may be used to form a free-standing microstructure comprising the engineered substrate by removing at least a portion of the intermediate layer from between the base substrate and the top layer.
Claims20
An engineered substrate, comprising:
- a base substrate;
- a monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate layer epitaxially grown over the base substrate;
- and
- a monocrystalline top layer epitaxially grown over the monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate layer.
A free-standing microstructure, comprising:
- a base silicon substrate;
- a monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate Si1-xGex layer epitaxially grown over the base silicon substrate;
- and
- a monocrystalline silicon layer epitaxially grown on the monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate Si1-xGex layer;
- wherein one or more voids are present in the monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate Si1-xGex layer directly between the base silicon substrate and the monocrystalline silicon layer.
A method of forming a free-standing microstructure, comprising:
- forming an engineered substrate, wherein forming the engineered substrate includes:
- epitaxially growing a monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate layer over a base substrate;
- and
- epitaxially growing a monocrystalline top layer over the monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate layer;
- forming an opening through the monocrystalline top layer;
- and
- removing at least a portion of the monocrystalline sacrificial intermediate layer from between the base substrate and the monocrystalline top layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.