Novel Nanowire Integration Techniques for Massively Parallel and Manufacturable Nanoscale Electronic and Photonic Devices

M. Saif Islam
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Davis

Semiconductor nanowire devices have demonstrated many novel electronic, optical and chemical properties in last few years. Despite significant progress in nanowire synthesis and many promising single device demonstrations, applications of nanowires have been stalled by our inability to controllably incorporate them within conventional integrated circuits. Unlike the research-based approach of sequentially connecting electrodes to individual nanowires for device physics studies, a massively parallel and manufacturable interfacing technique is crucial for reproducible fabrication of dense, low-cost nanodevice arrays.
In this talk, I will present two novel bridging techniques that were developed to create connections to a large number of nanowire devices between pre-fabricated electrodes. Individual electrical access to nano-devices without recourse to nanoprobes or tedious and expensive serial interfacing procedures has been achieved for the first time. These unique approaches of massively parallel ‘in situ’ epitaxial connections open new opportunities for integration of nanowires for designing novel nano-scale electronic and photonic devices and chemical and biological sensing. The methods will help fabricate a massively large number of nanowire devices for future circuits leading to an unprecedented device-density, ultimately making the nanowire based devices a commercial reality with a major improvement in the cost/performance ratio.