R&D Consortia
Solmates is involved in numerous national and international research projects where PLD is employed for various purposes by institutes, (SME) development partners and industrial end-users.
Current projects
The ID2PPAC project involves around different research activities concerning the future 2nm technology node. To continue the Moore’s law trajectory to the 2nm node, while meeting PPAC requirements, the combination of further advancements in EUV lithography & masks, 3D device structures, materials and metrology is required. The strength of the project pivots on the focused engagement of leading expert partners in these key interlocking areas and a shared pilot line.
Within this consortium Solmates is responsible for the development and installation of a 300 mm PLD system at Imec. The system will be used for semi-damascene material development.
The ID2PPAC project is funded by the EXCEL Joint Undertaking program under grant agreement No 101007254.
Thin-film piezoelectric devices are a key enabler of the 5G revolution and beyond. Although they are already ubiquitous in cell phones, they require significant advances to meet the increasingly demanding requirements of 5G connectivity around the globe.
Manufacturing is a key area in which improvements are needed. Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a method for producing thin-film functional materials. The EU-funded 5G-TRAIN project will develop an optimised PLD manufacturing solution that will enhance the performance of advanced piezo thin films and lower the costs 10-fold. It will enable advanced industrial-scale production of thin-film piezo materials at a competitive price for the first time.
Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a straight forward method for producing thin-film functional materials. The EU-funded 5G-TRAIN project will develop an optimized PLD manufacturing solution that will enhance the performance of advanced piezo thin films and lower the costs 10-fold. It will enable advanced industrial-scale production of thin-film piezo materials at a competitive price for the first time.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 969418
The EPISTORE project aims to deliver efficient electrical energy storage by using advanced thin film Solid Oxide Cells (SOCs) with fast response and extremely low contents of critical raw materials. Power-to-Gas (P2G) is a promising solution for long-term electrical energy storage of the intermittent power generated by renewable energy sources as well as a smart solution for decarbonizing the transport sector and energy-intensive industries.
The main goal of EPISTORE is to develop a new family of superior performing ultrathin Reversible Solid Oxide Cells (<1μm in thickness). Using novel nanoscale concepts and developing never explored materials, revolutionary reversible SOCs will give rise to radically new ultracompact and fast response P2G and P2P storage solutions directly coupled to renewable energy sources and applicable to forbidden scenarios such as off-shore power generation and new markets like transportation. Solmates provides scalability towards production of these novel thin film processes developed by using research Pulsed Laser Deposition equipment.
The EPISTORE project is funded by the H2020-FET Proactive – Boosting emerging technologies call under proposal number 101017709.
The overall objective of the PIn3S project is to realize Pilot Integration of 3nm Semiconductor technology. This covers Process Integration, creation of Lithography Equipment, EUV Mask Repair Equipment and Metrology tools capable to deal with 3D structures, defects analysis, overlay and feature size evaluation. Each of these objectives will be achieved by cooperation between key European equipment developers like; ASML, Zeiss, Thermo Fisher, Applied Materials, Nova, KTI involved with their suppliers, involvement of a strong knowledge network based on Universities of Germany, Heidelberg University Hospital, and The Netherlands, TU Delft and the University of Twente, complemented with key Technology Institutes such as imec and Fraunhofer. As set out in the Multi Annual Strategic Plan 2018, PIn3S addresses the ambition for the European Equipment & Manufacturing industry for advanced semiconductor technologies to lead the world in miniaturization by supplying new equipment and materials approximately two years ahead of introduction of volume production of advanced semiconductor manufacturers. Solmates will provide Hardware design for PLD equipment capable of deposition on large curved glass substrates. Substrate handling, temperature control and uniformity control of the deposited layer are important design challenges.
grant agreement ID — 826422
The CUSTCO project targets the development of industrially feasible transparent conductive oxides (TCO) to reduce the cost of high efficiency silicon solar cells using full-area passivated contacts, which have demonstrated efficiencies above 25% in cleanroom and pre-production environment.
While research and industry currently focus on silicon thin films, either amorphous (a-Si:H) or silicon oxide (SiOx)/polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) fabricated in the range of 200°C to 900°C, respectively, the CUSTCO consortium will address the significant impact of the TCO on the cost and performance improvements of such devices and hence on the success for their industrialization. In the CUSTCO project Solmates provides Pulsed Laser Deposition equipment for material evaluation for full-area passivated contacts.
Project number – SOL18001
EX3vaGaND aims to develop energy efficient electron GaN devices. The electrical power consumption is on the rise because of the increasing amount of electronics in everyday applications. As a result, there is a continuing trend to reduce the power consumption of the key component used in the power converters, the power transistor. By integrating ferroelectric materials in the transistor its power consumption will reduce. In this multidisciplinary research project, the consortium will focus on the buildup of knowledge on novel planar transistors in which a ferroelectric layer is integrated. To this purpose, we propose to develop and realize dedicated test structures in the MESA+ Nanolab and analyze those using finite-element modeling, structural analysis and electrical characterization tools.
The EX3vaGaND project started on 1 June 2018 and is funded by the NWO under the “Open Technologieprogramma” (project number: 16328).
Within the H2020 project 3PEAT the potential of Solmates-PZT stress-optic modulators will be further explored. 3PEAT stands for 3D Photonic integration platform based on multilayer PolyBoard and TriPleX technology for optical switching and remote sensing and ranging applications. Within the consortium of European partners, the technology of PZT actuated stress-optic modulators that was successful demonstrated for the use in 5G phased array antenna’s, will be used for these applications.
The 3PEAT project is funded by the EU under the H2020 program (contract number: 780502).
SILENSE researches acoustic technologies and develops concepts to activate and control devices by gesture, data communication, and indoor positioning, exclusively based on these innovative technologies. These concepts can be used in different domains: wearables, automotive and smart home application (IoT). In the SILENSE consortium, Solmates will develop and integrate thin film piezo materials for pMUT devices (piezo micro ultrasound transducers).
Project website: https://silense.eu/
The SILENSE project is funded by the EU under the H2020 ECSEL-JU program
(contract number: 737487)
Photonics is essential in today’s life science technology. PIX4life will mature a state of the art silicon nitride (SiN) photonics pilot line for life science applications in the visible range and pave the way to make it accessible as an enabler for product development by a broad range of industrial customers. In the project Solmates will use its PLD equipment for the integration of piezoelectric materials in the silicon photonics platform.
Project website: http://www.pix4life.eu
The PIX4LIFE project is funded by the EU under the H2020 program
(contract number: 688519)
Solmates has developed a unique patented process for damage-free ITO deposition on OLEDs. In this project Solmates is looking into the scaling of its PLD technology to display size and the integration aspects.
