Teh Y. Tan, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Energy Initiative

Professor Tan is conducting fundamental research in materials science and processes related to electronic materials. He and his colleagues have originated the study of the subject of intrinsic gettering which is now widely used to improve yield in integrated circuit fabrications using Czochralski silicon. Primarily because of this work, the semiconductor industry granted him the SEMMY Award in the materials category in 1987. SEMMY is one of the highest awards the industry gives.

He has also studied the basic aspects of the following topics in silicon: precipitation, kinetic process of defect evolution, impurity diffusion mechanisms and point defects. These studies have led to greater understanding of the structure and properties of defects in silicon. Since 1986, his research interests have also included III-V compound semiconducting materials. He is a recipient of the 1994 Alexander Von Humboldt Prize.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	186 Engineering Building
Office Phone:	(919) 660-5323, (919) 660-5321
Email Address:

Education:

PhD	University of California at Berkeley	1971
MS	Tulane University	1965
BS	National Taiwan University	1962

Specialties:

Thermodynamics
Nanoscience
Nanomaterial manufacturing and characterization
Semiconductors
Materials

Research Interests: Fundamental studies in materials science and processes related to microelectronics

Current projects: crystal growth mechanisms in nano-scale, gettering for improving solar grade Si properties

Impurity diffusion mechanisms and point defects in silicon and III-V compounds; line defects; precipitation and gettering; kinetic processes of defect evolution; x-ray scattering and electron microscopy; crystal growth in nano-scale

Areas of Interest:

Impurity diffusion mechanisms and point defects in silicon and III-V compounds
line defects
precipitation and gettering
kinetic processes of defect evolution
x-ray scattering and electron microscopy
crystal growth in nano-scale

Keywords:

Al gettering • amphoteric defect • amphoteric dopant • carrier life time • carrier diffusion length • chemical tension • comliant substrate • diffusion • diffusion mechanism in Si • diffusion mechanism in GaAs • diffusion segregation • diffusivity • dislocations • dislocation nucleation • disordering mechanism • doping enhanced superlattice disordering • epitaxial silicide film • external gettering • extrinsic gettering • fermi level effect • generation current • gettering • grain boundary • grain boundary dislocation • indiffusion • interdiffusion • inter-diffusion • intrinsic gettering • intrinsic point defect • isothermal diffusion • minority carrier life time • minority carrier diffusion length • nanowire • nucleation barrier • optical processing • order-disorder transition • outdiffusion • oxidation induced stacking faults • oxidation enhanced diffusion • oxidation retarded diffucion • oxygen precipites • oxygen precipitation • oxygen precipitation retardation • phase transformation • phosphorus gettering • point defect chains • precipitate dislocation complex • recombination current • Schottky barrier • Schottky effect • segregation • self-interstitial in silicon • self-interstitial in GaAs • silicides • Si nanowire • solubility • stacking fault • supersaturation • swirl defect • thermomigration • tilt boundary • wafer bonding • twist boundary • undersaturation • undissociated dislocations • vacancy in silicon • vacancy in GaAs • void formation in GaAs

Curriculum Vitae

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. N. Li and T. Y. Tan and U. Gosele, Transition region width of nanowire hetero- and pn-junctions grown using vapor-liquid-solid processes, Applied Physics A-materials Science \& Processing, vol. 90 no. 4 (March, 2008), pp. 591 -- 596, ISSN 0947-8396  [abs]
2. L. L. Zhao and N. Li and A. Langner and M. Steinhart and T. Y. Tan and E. Pippel and H. Hofmeister and K. N. Tu and U. Gosele, Crystallization of amorphous SiO2 microtubes catalyzed by lithium, Advanced Functional Materials, vol. 17 no. 12 (August, 2007), pp. 1952 -- 1957, ISSN 1616-301X  [abs]
3. N. Li and T. Y. Tan and U. Gosele, Chemical tension and global equilibrium in VLS nanostructure growth process: from nanohillocks to nanowires, Applied Physics A-materials Science \& Processing, vol. 86 no. 4 (March, 2007), pp. 433 -- 440, ISSN 0947-8396  [abs]
4. Schubert, L. and Werner, P. and Zakharov, N.D. and Gerth, G. and Kolb, F.M. and Long, L. and Gosele, U. and Tan, T.Y., Silicon nanowhiskers grown on ⟨111⟩Si substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy, Appl. Phys. Lett. (USA), vol. 84 no. 24 (2004), pp. 4968 - 70 [1.1762701]  [abs]
5. Tan, T.Y. and Li, N. and Gosele, U., On the thermodynamic size limit of nanowires grown by the vapor-liquid-solid process, Appl. Phys. A, Mater. Sci. Process. (Germany), vol. A78 no. 4 (2004), pp. 519 - 26 [s00339-003-2380-5]  [abs]