Single-Crystal SiGe/Sapphire Epitaxy

NASA's Langley Research Center has developed a new low-temperature method of SiGe/sapphire growth that produces the same single-crystal films with much less thermal loading effort to the substrate. This eliminates the time-consuming and costly high heating, long thermal soak times, and interfacial Si layer. Yield and throughput are increased as time to production is reduced from more than four hours to less than one hour. The same quality of SiGe/sapphire is produced with far less effort and time, bringing it to within the realm of mass production.