ChemPrint: Next-generation printed semiconductors: Atomic-level engineering via molecular surface chemistry (SFB 1719)

Third Party Funds Group - Overall project


Acronym: SFB 1719

Start date : 01.10.2025

End date : 30.06.2029


Project details

Scientific Abstract

ChemPrint reinvents semiconductors research. This CRC shall inaugurate the patterned growth of functional inorganic semiconductors from solution with atomic precision using molecular chemical control. The mild processing conditions are inherently energy-efficient and the additive approach materials-efficient, in stark contrast to the characteristics of traditional semiconductor manu-fac¬tu¬ring. According to our tenet, the ultimate degree of control achieved routinely in classical molecular chemistry can be advantageously transferred to interfacial reactions designed to grow semi-con¬ductor films with atomic precision. To this aim, we will tailor molecular precursors, reaction envi¬ron-ments, depo¬sition procedures, and substrates in order to precision-engineer the reaction mechanisms, the elementary kinetics, the reversibility of individual steps, the interfacial energies, and the mobility of adspecies. Controlling these factors in mild conditions, potentially even at room temperature, shall achieve the highest possible degree of accuracy in positioning atoms or ions into regular structures. This strategy will then enable us to create original patterns and heterostructures along horizontal and vertical dimensions. We will aim for epitaxial material quality in various guises and corresponding functional quality, targeting semiconductors with either defect correction ability or intrinsic defect tolerance. The first funding period will establish quantitative design criteria for these currently imperfectly defined concepts. Accordingly, we will during the first four years gather data on three material families which cover a range of dimensionalities and chemical bonding types: heavier main group V (group 15) chalcogenides, halide perovskites, and transition metal dichalcogenides. The general insight gained will enable the consortium to choose the material focus for subsequent funding periods. The individual research projects contributing to the consortium will be organized in four research areas: Area C, Surface chemistry and reactivity; Area S, Structure and electronic properties; Area F, Functional properties and applications; Area M, Modeling and simulation. On a strategic level, the fundamental insight into low-temperature molecular reaction mechanisms at interfaces gained in ChemPrint will open up a new avenue in semiconductor processing. Suitable functional materials and semiconductor devices will be rendered accessible by approaches requiring low investments. Innovation by small economic actors will be possible again in information technology. This will reverse the economic trend in this sector, allowing it to revert to a more decentralized, more agile and nimble state, and potentially putting Germany at the spearhead of a flexible and robust semi¬conductor manufacturing industry.

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