Copy-cat thin films
Credit: Wei Kong and Kuan Qiao
By Ellis Davies
MIT engineers have fabricated ultrathin semiconducting films made from exotic materials, which can provide a cost-effective method to manufacture flexible electronics from any combination of semiconducting elements. Researchers say that it could perform better than current silicon-based devices.
Researchers fabricated films from gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, and lithium fluoride. These materials exhibit better performance than silicon, but have not been viable because of their cost.Â
The technique, known as remote epitaxy, fabricates multiple films with one expensive underlying wafer. The overlaying films copy the single-crystalline pattern of the underlying semiconducting wafer, and can be peeled away.Â
‘We've opened up a way to make flexible electronics with so many different material systems, other than silicon,’ says Jeehwan Kim, Professor in the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.Â
