A new SOI fabrication technology has been investigated that offers a low temperature alternative to other methods. SMM-SOI can be easily adapted for use in existing commercial fabrication equipment, thus reducing start-up costs of mass production. As well, the process saves on costly fabrication stages such as high temperature annealing typically used in other methods. SMM-SOI also provides for the incorporation of metallization stages with stages of doping, thus furthering the cost-effectiveness of the process. With each SMM-SOI stage, both a highly-doped, p-type film and c-Al mediator film are fabricated. Regions of the Al film may be etched for use as metal Al contacts.

Solid metal mediated epitaxy has several advantages over other fabrication methods that produce local silicon on insulator (SOI) device components. In comparison with SPE-ELO, SMM-SOI works in a manner that circumvents the obstacle of p-Si cluttering in ELO regions that otherwise prevent SPE methods from further lateral overgrowth. In SMM-SOI, an Al mediator film is deposited across both seed and oxide regions and allows better-management of Si atoms near the respectively buried interfaces. As shown, the seed region acts as a crystalline sink for diffused Si atoms. By proposal, the buried oxide/Al interface acts as a reflective shield for diffused Si atoms that cause them to remain suspended in the Al film. This process then produces a concentration gradient between seed and oxide regions, causing the Al mediator over oxide regions to act as sources of Si atoms.

SMME is primarily targeted as a local SOI fabrication technology ideal for three-dimensional device structures that require a low thermal budget. Here, due to the nature of the investigated mediator-diffusor pair of Al-Si, only p-type films have been grown. Other pairs of materials may be investigated to provide n-type SMME counterparts to complement the p-type component. Thus, complete CMOS devices may be fabricated using the SMM-SOI method.