Some of the key competitive technologies of interest today for supporting the US economy: electronics, solar energy and environmental remediation use thin films of copper or copper oxide which are generally deposited on an electrically insulating material. Researchers at Alfred University have a way of growing these films in situ that circumvents the costly deposition steps. Preliminary films have been examined by their research partner, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), for their potential in microelectronics. The goal of this proposal is to determine whether this transformative technology can be applied to meet the requirement of the films for the key technologies mentioned above, thus making devices more economical, easy to manufacture and consequently more competitive. This project will involve graduate and undergraduate students from both universities and will be used to encourage high school students in the disadvantaged rural communities of western New York, in particular to attract women students into higher education in science and engineering.
TECHNICAL DETAILS: The conditions for growing in situ cupric, cuprous oxide and copper films on an insulating borosilicate glass substrate by heat treatment appropriate to three key technologies will be determined. Cu2O continuous films are needed for solar collection, both Cu2O and CuO with high surface area for environmental remediation and both CuO and copper films for microelectronic chip fabrication. The latter requires the collaboration of RIT Microelectronics Fabrication Facilities. If these films prove viable in any of these technologies it will be disruptive technologically in that it will replace costly and sometimes very difficult and time-consuming deposition steps in the conventional process. Significant training of both graduate and undergraduate students with cutting edge characterization equipment (generously supplied by New York State Office of Science Technology and Academic Research) will be carried out.
