NSF Award
9505412
*** Li 9505412 This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will employ a state-of-the-art fabrication method "Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD)" to create single crystal layered structures of exotic materials (ferroelectrics and conductive oxide) on micromachined silicon with integrated silicon circuitry. These new fabrication methods and materials will permit the construction of electronic devices and infrared (IR) detectors which are faster, more sensitive and lower in cost than competing commercial technologies. The innovations of the proposed program are: 1) advancing thin-film deposition technology to achieve fully epitaxial growth of ferroelectric films on silicon substrates, by using the highly successful pulsed laser deposition technique; 2) replacing the Pt bottom electrode with the epitaxial conductive oxide material, La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 (LSCO); 3) applying emerging thin-film technology to the fabrication and design of uncooled pyroelectric IR detectors, which are currently made only from bulk pyroelectric materials; 4) achieving exceptional thermal speed performance by using micromachined silicon wafers as substrates; 5) achieving fully epitaxial pyroelectric IR detector arrays on Si, which can be monolithically integrated with Si integrated circuits (ICs). In the Phase I program, the proposers successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the critical component for the multilayer technology. Heterostructures containing five epitaxial thin-film layers, i.e. LSCO / BaTiO3 / LSCO / YBa2Cu307-x / YSZ or LSCO / (Pb, Zr)TiO3 / LSCO / YBa2Cu307-x / YSZ, were deposited on Si(100) substrates by in-situ Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The proposers have fabricated and tested an uncooled pyroelectric detector, based on the novel ferroelectric/conductive oxide heterostructures. The Phase I research has laid down a solid foundation for Phase II. The proposers expect that a prototype electronic device, the pyroelectric infrared detectors or detector arrays, will be developed by the end of the Phase II program. In Phase III, this prototype will be packaged and developed into a commercial product. The development of high-performance, low-cost, uncooled IR detector arrays will address future markets in applications such as: infrared spectroscopy, gas analysis, fire detection, thermal imaging, drivers' aid, pollution monitoring, medical thermograph, missile guidance, night vision, target tracking systems, laser detection and range finders, airborne-spaceborne scanners, space-based astronomy, and IR research. ***
