Feasibility Study of Single-crystal Si Islands Manufacturing by Microscale Printing of Nanoparticles and Laser Crystallization.

Abstract

Non-vacuum printing of single crystals would be ideal for high performance functional devices (such as electronics) fabrication, yet challenging for most materials, especially, for inorganic semiconductors. Currently, the printed films are dominantly in amorphous, polycrystalline or nanoparticle films. In this article, manufacturing of single-crystal silicon micro/nano island is attempted. Different from traditional vapor deposition for silicon thin film preparation, silicon nanoparticle ink was aerosol printed followed by confined laser melting and crystallization allowing potential fabrication of single-crystal silicon micro/nano islands. It is also shown as-fabricated Si islands can be transfer printed onto polymer substrates for potential application of flexible electronics. The additive nature of this technique suggests a scalable and economical approach for high crystallinity semiconductor printing.