Nanotechnology is a sub-discipline of technology concerned with the understanding and manipulation of structures and phenomena from the few nanometers, up to about one hundred nanometer scales. Nanotechnology exploits physical and quantum mechanical properties, such as the quantum confinement effects, not observed on a larger micrometer scale and above. It is an interdisciplinary field combining material science with physics, chemistry, electronics, photonics, biology and mechanics.

Due to the abundance of raw Silicon material in nature, its favorable electrical and physical semiconductor properties and the ability to produce large scale wafers of up to 12 inch (30 cm) as basis for the fabrication of devices and circuits, Silicon has become the material of choice in the microelectronics industry. However, Silicon’s material properties are not ideal. For example, Silicon has lower carrier mobility if compared to some other materials, thus reducing its operating speed. Furthermore, it is an indirect semiconductor, meaning that it can not (efficiently) emit or detect light.

To overcome the low mobility of Si, one can combine Si with Ge or C to from superior binary group IV compound semiconductors such as SiGe or SiC. However, such compound semiconductors from other groups (III-V) of the table of chemical elements can be used to produce optoelectronic devices and circuits with superior electrical characteristics.

Compound semiconductors such as used today in the microelectronics and photonics industries must be closely lattice matched. It is therefore today not possible to combine current “bulk” technology III-V based devices with group IV based devices. The mismatch between these materials would cause defects (“cracks”) in the material rendering it unusable for practical applications. Also, for close to lattice matched cases like GaP on Silicon the ambiguity of the nucleation of the III-V material causes what is know as “antiphase” domains rendering the material useless, unless they are grown on an atomically smooth Silicon surface.

The inability to combine optical III-V devices with electrical devices on Silicon technology platform has long been a major impediment for further improving and in lowering the cost of integrated optoelectronic and electronic circuits. QuNano intends to bridge this gap and combine Silicon circuits with III-V electronic and or III-V optoelectronic devices on low-cost Silicon substrates compatibly with much of today’s microelectronics processes, thus preserving the substantial plant and equipment investments already made while offering the superior device size, speed and energy efficiency of nanowire-based devices.