Grant: Idea to Innovation
Université de Sherbrooke
$60,000.00
High performance gas handling and injection system for ultrahigh vacuum tools
EF 2013-14
Résumé
Many semiconductor processes require the injection of gases in a vacuum chamber in a controlled manner. Because of the nature of the semiconductor industry, these process must deliver highly uniform and reproducible products with a high level of success. To this day, the technology surrounding the injection of gas in vacuum remains crude. While highly uniform gas fluxes are routinely generated in the vacuum chambers, the injector are extremely wasteful, using merely a few percent of the injected gas in the process and sending the rest to waste, generating unwanted costs for chemicals, abatement, disposal and maintenance. With several application in strong expansion, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) for solid-state lighting and photovoltaic cells and panels, the market for new tools using the injection of gas in vacuum has maintained double digit annual rate of growth and the analysts forecast a sustained growth in the coming years. The market is therefore ripe for a new technology of gas management and injection with significant improvements in control, costs, and gas usage efficiency. This Idea to Innovation project targets this market by developing an innovative management system for injecting chemical vapors in a ultrahigh vacuum chamber with an extreme level of control, reproducibility, while achieving a much higher usage efficiency than conventional techniques. The system will allow processing tools using chemical vapors in vacuum to dramatically reduce their usage of expensive or dangerous chemicals while maintaining the quality of their products. The financial advantage promised by our system will give it competitive advantage in the market. The team is led by Richard Arès, who has been studying the basic phenomena of vacuum epitaxy for the last 13 years. While he was a researcher at Nortel Networks, he has designed and built the first production CBE tool in the world for the production of high speed electronics devices. He will be supported by a strong team with proven track records of industrial innovations.
Programme
Idea to Innovation
Bénéficiaire
Emplacement
Quebec, Canada
Type de bénéficiaire
Academia
Type
Grant
Source
NSERC's Awards Data
Tel que publié
Application id
412886-2011
Name nom
Arès, Richard
Department département
Génie mécanique
Organization id
68
Institution établissement
Université de Sherbrooke
Province en
Québec
Province fr
Québec
Country en
CANADA
Country fr
CANADA
Fiscal year exercice financier
2013
Competition year année de concours
2011
Award amount
60000
Program id
I2IPJ
Program name en
Idea to Innovation
Program name fr
De l'idée à l'innovation
Group en
Research partnerships programs
Group fr
Programmes de partenariat
Committee code
96
Committee name en
RPP Internal Decision Cttee
Committee name fr
Cté de décision interne - PPR
Area of application code
1208
Area of application group en
Advancement of knowledge
Area of application group fr
Avancement des connaissances
Area of application en
Materials sciences
Area of application fr
Sciences des matériaux
Research subject code
1604
Research subject group en
Industrial engineering
Research subject group fr
Génie industriel
Research subject en
Manufacturing
Research subject fr
Fabrication
Partie
2
Nb partie
2
Application title
High performance gas handling and injection system for ultrahigh vacuum tools
Keyword
NSERC
Application summary
Many semiconductor processes require the injection of gases in a vacuum chamber in a controlled manner. Because of the nature of the semiconductor industry, these process must deliver highly uniform and reproducible products with a high level of success. To this day, the technology surrounding the injection of gas in vacuum remains crude. While highly uniform gas fluxes are routinely generated in the vacuum chambers, the injector are extremely wasteful, using merely a few percent of the injected gas in the process and sending the rest to waste, generating unwanted costs for chemicals, abatement, disposal and maintenance. With several application in strong expansion, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) for solid-state lighting and photovoltaic cells and panels, the market for new tools using the injection of gas in vacuum has maintained double digit annual rate of growth and the analysts forecast a sustained growth in the coming years. The market is therefore ripe for a new technology of gas management and injection with significant improvements in control, costs, and gas usage efficiency. This Idea to Innovation project targets this market by developing an innovative management system for injecting chemical vapors in a ultrahigh vacuum chamber with an extreme level of control, reproducibility, while achieving a much higher usage efficiency than conventional techniques. The system will allow processing tools using chemical vapors in vacuum to dramatically reduce their usage of expensive or dangerous chemicals while maintaining the quality of their products. The financial advantage promised by our system will give it competitive advantage in the market. The team is led by Richard Arès, who has been studying the basic phenomena of vacuum epitaxy for the last 13 years. While he was a researcher at Nortel Networks, he has designed and built the first production CBE tool in the world for the production of high speed electronics devices. He will be supported by a strong team with proven track records of industrial innovations.
