High-Performance Computing and Manufacturing Sandia's Center for Compound Semiconductor Science & Technology (CCSST) Fact Sheet

The Center for Compound Semiconductor Science and Technology (CCSST) at Sandia National Laboratories includes a vertically integrated effort in microelectronic and photonic device research and development. These vertically integrated capabilities include:

• A strong technical foundation in advanced semiconductor materials and physics research
• State-of-the art fabrication capabilities
• Sophisticated device and material characterization laboratories.

An active modeling effort, encompassing both materials and device activities, provides an additional differentiating strength.

Semiconductor materials and device research:
Sandia's historical strength in materials and device physics is one cornerstone of our present electronic and photonic device activities. Pioneering research in strained-layer-superlattices and microcavity resonators in the early 1980's has provided a foundation for extensive activities in microelectronic and photonic devices. Building on past innovations, such as the first strained quantum well field-effect transistor (FET), some important recent microelectronic device efforts include:

• Self-aligned refractory gate devices, including complementary heterojunction-field-effect transistors (HFETs) and distributed FETs
• High performance heterostructure bipolar transistor photoreceivers in InGaAs on InP
• High frequency (60GHz) FETs.

Work on microcavity resonators has grown into a major program on vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) technology. Some key activities in this program include:

• First visible wavelength VCSEL diodes, based on the AllnGaP system
• Innovative infrared VCSEL designs for high efficiency and low threshold operation
• Integration of VCSELs and micro-optical elements for advanced systems.

Continuing research is focused on developing new materials that will extend emission wavelengths into the visible and mid-infrared wavelengths. Exploration into advanced concepts in photonic lattices and nanostructured optical surfaces hold promise for new engineered photonic materials for future devices activities.

Fabrication and device characterization capabilities:
CCST's strong fabrication capabilities--including direct-write electron-beam lithography and advanced dry etching--allow us to explore advanced device concepts not yet realized in the commercial sector. These capabilities have enabled quantum electronic devices that use nanometer-scale features for gates and air-bridged point contacts. These devices then are used to investigate device concepts based on tunneling and low-dimensional systems, such as quantum dots. The anticipated result is ultra-small and ultra-low power devices that operate with only a few electrons per device. Advanced device research also requires highly capable measurement laboratories to characterize devices and materials. CCST staff have laboratory facilities with a broad range of measurement capabilities including:

• Optical and electronic properties of materials
• High and low bandwidth characterization of electronic devices over various temperature ranges
• Characterization of active and passive photonic components over broad wavelength and bandwidth ranges
• Specialized microwave measurement facilities.

• Electromagnetic modeling of guided-wave photonic devices with beam propagation techniques
• Self-consistent classical and quantum mechanical models that simultaneously solve the Schrsdinger and Poisson equations for heterostructures
• Carrier transport and recombination phenomena in heterostructures, including high fields and carrier densities
• Thermal transport in device structures
• Laser theory and nonlinear optical properties of semiconductors
• Band structure of new semiconductors compounds

Many CCST capabilities are combined in computer models for specific device structures, such as VCSELs and FETs. CCST scientists also use an extensive suite of commercial software packages for microwave circuit and device simulation and electromagnetic field calculations.

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