Scientists may have cracked the incompatibilities between semiconducting material and base substrate materials by developing the long-awaited universal substrate. The development of an inexpensive substrate would enable new generations of cheap devices, ranging from opto-electronic through to CDs and storage. The Financial Times reports that Cornell University in New York is leading the way with a structurally-compliant substrate which permits a crystal of any semiconductor material to grow on its surface. This new approach allows significant levels of misalignment between the surfaces, unlike current generation technology which has trouble managing a 1% misalignment. If the Cornell scientists can increase compliant substrate tolerance from the present 15% up to 20%, they believe that sophisticated gallium nitride will grow on the compliant substrates. This would take production processes one stage further, enabling the production of blue and ultraviolet semiconductor lasers. The university is cautiously optimistic, acknowledging that if the technology lives up to its promise, the microelectronics industry will be revolutionized. This is particularly so if they manage to produce Ultra Large Scale Integrated circuits where several types of semiconductor operate together on the same board.
