A technique for creating thin films on substrates in precise patterns, in which the substrate is placed in a high vacuum, and a guided beam of ionized molecules is fired at it, effectively allowing molecular-thin layers to be "painted" onto the substrate where required.
Molecular Beam Epitaxy – a type of epitaxy that typically grows a crystal lattice-matched, single layer of atoms of a given element onto a monocrystalline substrate. The MBE process used by Picogiga starts with solid sources of ultra-pure elements that are heated in separate furnaces. They evaporate then condense on the wafer. The term “beam” refers to the fact that the different elements only come into contact with each other once they are on the wafer. The furnaces are shuttered open and closed by a computer control system, so that only a single layer of atoms is grown at a time. This enables the formation of very precise, complex structures of layers. “Molecular” is a term used for historic reasons, even though now almost all the layers are atomically grown (except for arsenic, which is still grown in a molecular form).