An Industrial Perspective on Nanomaterials in the Semiconductor Industry

Any substance that has a fraction of particles that are between 1 and 100 nm in size is considered to be a nanomaterial, according to a broad definition. The most important area of technology today is nanotechnology. This enables the creation and use of materials at the nm scale by either growing materials from single atom clusters to bulk matter from the bottom up or reducing substances from volume matter to a particle from the top down. The size cutoff used in the descriptions may be somewhat arbitrary, but it nonetheless effectively conveys the important idea that the properties of materials with nanoscale features, including nanoforms, may differ dramatically from the characteristics of macromaterials in bulk. Nanoforms may be advantageous in that they increase material strength, change chemical reactivity, or alter electrical properties. These qualities provide access to advanced applications in a range of industries, including medicine, the environment, and energy production. The fabrication and development of several effective electronic devices with a very high surface-to-volume ratio are now using it or consider using it. This approach is particularly used in the semiconductor and solar cell sectors because it generates a significant amount of contact or boundary atoms, which leads to increased surface-dependent material properties. This chapter examines the impacts of nanotechnology on the electronics industry with an emphasis on photovoltaic applications such as nanowire solar cells, quantum dots, and thin films.