Licensable Technologies : Materials : Composites

Polymer-Assisted Depositions of Nitride Films

Abstract
This invention uses the technique of Polymer-Assisted Deposition (PAD) disclosed previously by Los Alamos for the deposition of Metal Oxides.  This technique (PAD) is used in this invention to deposit thin films of various nitrides.  The invention shows how PAD can be used to deposit TiN, AlN, and GaN on various substrates.  The structure of the film can be amorphous, polycrystalline, nanocrystalline, microcrystalline, or epitaxy depending on the solution, substrate, and post-processing conditions.  This method allows one to control the stoichiometry of the nitride deposited.  The films are of high quality and uniform thickness.  This method can be used on irregular surfaces and does not suffer from "shadowing" problems of other techniques.  The films using PAD do not crack as is typical with many Sol-Gel processes and are much cheaper than physical vapor deposition such as sputtering, electron-beam evaporation, thermal evaporation, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), pulsed laser deposition (PLD), and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). 

Application(s)

• Wide Band Semiconductor
  • LEDs
  • Lasers
  • Opto-electric materials and components
• Hardness
  • Steel Coating
  • Tool Coating
• Conductive
  • Microelectronics

Advantages

• Control exact stoichiometry of nitride in the thin film
• does not crack as is traditional with sol-gel processes
• Uniform and homogeneous film thickness
• Much cheaper than vacuum-related deposition processes
• Control of structure of film
  • Amorphous
  • Composite
  • Polycrystalline
  • Nanocrystalline
  • Microcrystalline
  • Epitaxy

IP Status: Available for Non-Exclusive Licensing

Reference Number: 658

S Number: DOE reference no.(s): 104,955

Patents & Applications:
Application(s) Pending

Posted: 08-17-2005

Contact
John Mott
Technology Transfer Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory
P.O. Box 1663, MailStop C334
(505) 665-0883
jmott@lanl.gov