III-V/Si integration: potential and outlook for integrated low power micro and nanosystems

Integration of III-V compound semiconductors with silicon on a monolithic platform has been a long term vision for the semiconductor industry. In the past, this concept began as a simple notion that the best physical properties of III-V semiconductors and devices could be married with the characteristics of the silicon manufacturing processes. However in recent years, the renewed interest in such heterogeneous technology is fueled by the interest to create an integrated system in silicon to continue to miniaturize with enhanced performance. Although the challenges to monolithically integrate III-V semiconductors with silicon began primarily as a technical investigation of GaAs epitaxial growth on silicon substrates, higher level technical solutions must be provided in the context of manufacturing to bridge viable short, medium and long term applications. In this talk, I shall describe our focus in research in III-V/Si monolithic integration in the context of materials science challenges, suggesting possible solutions to heterogeneous substrate issues that allow for silicon process integration and manufacturing, as well as producing monolithic III-V/Si integrated devices that could be enablers for future high performance platforms. I shall summarize the talk by speculating on the nature of applications that can potentially drive the integrated devices into the marketplace.