Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Yu, Shui-Qing

Abstract

The automation programming of a UHV-CVD reactor for group IV materials was performed. The reactor was programmed to perform all the necessary functions for a Germanium (Ge) growth with little response from the user. The overall goal was to fix an Argon purge program to clean out the process chamber of gases and create an Excel output program to ease any work on the user. There were also general fixes and address name changes that occurred throughout the program. Then, a one step and two step growth of a Ge material was formed in a UHV-CVD reaction for analysis. Germanium is a type of semiconductor that has the potential for more efficiency than silicon. This is largely due to the intrinsic structure of Germanium having a direct bandgap compared to Silicon which has an indirect one [2]. This allows Germanium to produce more energy than Silicon [3]. In order to find if a growth was accomplished, ellipsometry was used to analyze any thickness on the wafer. If there is any thickness measurements, a layer of Germanium was deposited. After having the automation run, a thickness was measured across multiple one and two step growths showing a successful Ge growth. Only one two step wafer growth did not have a measured thickness, but it still had the same shine on the surface. Thus, it also had correctly grown. Since the automation program successfully grew multiple Germanium wafers, the automation program for the UHV-CVD reactor worked.

Keywords

LabView; UHV-CVD; Automation; Programming

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