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Penn State University
College of Earth and Mineral Sciences

MATSE 450: Synthesis And Processing Of Electronic And Photonic Materials

Textbook: The Materials Science of Thin Films by M. Ohring

Faculty: Joan Redwing, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

Description

This course covers the materials science of thin film deposition, etching and bulk crystal growth including the fundamentals of materials transport, accumulation, epitaxy and defect formation that are associated with these processes.

Course Topics

  1. Sources from which film material comes: gaseous, liquid and solid.
  2. Material transfer mechanisms at low and high pressure and plasma formation.
  3. Adsorption and desorption processes.
  4. Nucleation: homogeneous and heterogeneous.
  5. Microstructure development: coalescence, preferred orientation, homoepitaxy and heteroepitaxy
  6. Defects and mechanisms of defect introduction during growth.
  7. Recrystallization and solid phase epitaxy.
  8. Bulk synthesis techniques.
  9. Thin film synthesis techniques: liquid phase epitaxy, sol-gel, physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition.

Course Objectives

  1. To gain an understanding of the fundamental physical and chemical processes which are involved in crystal growth and thin film fabrication.
  2. To become familiar with the important synthesis and processing techniques which are used for the fabrication of electronic and photonic devices.
  3. To gain an understanding of how material characteristics are influenced by processing and deposition conditions.
  4. To apply this knowledge to a case study/design project.

Course Outcomes

  1. Using the kinetic theory of gases, a student should be able to calculate the mean free path and impingement rate of a gas and identify the appropriate flow regime.
  2. A student should be able to use capillarity theory to calculate the critical nucleus size and nucleation rate in heteroepitaxial growth.
  3. Given micrographs, a student should be able to identify grain structures and growth modes of thin films.
  4. A student should be able to determine evaporation conditions to deposit metal alloys films of a desired composition and predict film uniformity given a specific geometry.
  5. A student should be able to calculate sputtering yield and explain the different types of sputtering techniques
  6. A student should be able to use thermodynamic data to calculate the gas phase concentration of species in a chemical vapor deposition process.
  7. Given kinetic data, a student should be able to calculate the rate of thin film deposition in a chemical vapor deposition process.
  8. Given a specific application, a student should be able to select the most appropriate film deposition process to achieve a desired outcome.

Assessment Tools

  1. In-class closed book exams
  2. Problem sets and homework
  3. In-class presentations and a summary paper on individual case study/design projects