Transfer Printing of Nanomaterials as a Novel Device Fabrication Route

Abstract

Transfer printing is a promising fabrication process for the high-performance electronic devices, novel device structures, and flexible electronics. It enables the combination of the current low-cost and well-established standard silicon process with high performance of III-V compound semiconductor to overcome the limitations of silicon devices, resulting in low-cost fabrication of high-performance devices. This process can be applied to not only III-V compound semiconductor technology but also low-dimensional materials (i.e. graphene and nanowires). In addition, it guarantees the freedom of choice of materials and substrates. Thus, combination and stacking process of various nanomaterials can be potentially employed by transfer printing for the fabrication of diverse hetero-structured optoelectronic applications. Furthermore, transfer printing of inorganic semiconductor onto flexible substrate enables to achieve high-performance flexible electronic system. As a result, the transfer printing has been actively studied in various research fields. In this thesis, we introduce the various transfer printing methods and their applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices. Firstly, Chapter 1 introduces the historical background and the necessity of the transfer printing, the mechanism of the various transfer printing methods, and its applications. In Chapter 2, we introduce the dry transfer printing method of InAs high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) on silicon substrate for the silicon-based high-performance electronic device. In Chapter 3, we introduce the broadband and high-photoresponsivity photodiode through hetero-integration of III-V compound semiconductors on Si substrates with high-quality interface. In Chapter 4, we show the adhesive layer-assisted transfer printing method and the wrinkling process of the III-V compound semiconductor nanomembranes by using the vacuum-induced stress control of nanomembranes on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microwell arrays. In this method, the size, direction, and location of wrinkle arrays can be easily controlled by changing the shape and location of the microwell arrays and the modulus of soft substrates. Finally, we introduce nanosheet-on-one-dimensional heterojunction photodiode by using wet transfer printing process in Chapter 5. The device shows high rectification ratio, very low dark current, and the high On/Off current ratio at room temperature under the light illumination. The transfer printing methods introduced in this thesis can be potentially employed in the fabrication of various heterostructure of semiconductors for diverse optoelectronic applications.