Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Improvement of the quantum efficiency of micro LED by ALD passivation

Micro LED has been interested in the next generation display and been actively developing at many electronics manufactures and institutes for applications of AR/VR, wearable device and extra-large display as a core factor of the forth industry. Also it is evaluated to have superior properties to LED as well as OLED with low power consumption, excellent brightness, greater contrast, flexibility and reliability.

Micro LED of less than 10 µm size is required for displays needed high pixel per inch (PPI) but the quantum efficiency drop would occur by sidewall effect in the manufacturing process. Looking at the reason in detail, micro LED chips require separation of them by dry etching process and the sidewall effect reducing external and internal quantum efficiency happens not to optimize extraction of light by chemical contaminations and structural damages during the etching process.

ALD passivation on the sidewall of Micro LED after dry etching process

The passivation of sidewall by atomic layer deposition recover and remove the plasma damage by dry etching so that the quantum efficiency could be increased and also the ratio of improvement could increase as small as the size of micro LED.

Specially, the interest of productive ALD equipment has been gradually increased because of the excellent dielectric passivation by ALD Al2O3 thin films expecting to improve quantum efficiency.

NCD has been developing wafer based high throughput batch ALD system continuously enable to form high quality oxide passivation to improve the quantum efficiency of micro LED. By introduction of the system in production of micro LED, it could be expected to guarantee the productivity, high quality and performance reliability of high resolution micro LEDs for applications of AR/VR, flexible and wearable devices and extra-large displays.  

NCD Si wafer based batch ALD cluster system



New Liquid phase Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) — A Breakthrough in ALD

Chemical engineers at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, invented ALD in the liquid phase that can produce materials indistinguishable from those made in the gas phase, with far cheaper equipment and no excess precursors. The researchers achieved this breakthrough by carefully measuring the ratio of the reacting precursors before injecting them onto the surface of a substrate. This way, they used exactly the right amount of precursor, with no leftovers that can cause unwanted reactions or be wasted. 

The new method also reduces costs by requiring only standard lab equipment for chemical synthesis. It can also be easily scaled up to coat more than 150 g of material with the same cheap equipment, without loss of coating quality. The technique can even achieve coatings that are usually not possible using gas-phase ALD, e.g., by using volatile precursors with extremely low volatility.

More information:


A cheaper way to scale up atomic layer deposition, Phys.org (LINK)

Benjamin P. Le Monnier et al. Atomic Layer Deposition on Dispersed Materials in Liquid Phase by Stoichiometrically Limited Injections, Advanced Materials (2019). DOI: 10.1002/adma.201904276

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By Abhishekkumar Thakur

Monday, November 11, 2019

ASM International launches A400(TM) Duo vertical furnace system with dual reactor chambers

New system addresses 200mm applications with high productivity and low cost of ownership

Munich - ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM LINK) today introduced the A400™ DUO vertical furnace system with dual reactor chambers for wafer sizes of 200mm and smaller. The system’s DUAL Boat reactors produce high throughput, increasing reactor utilization to a very high percentage, while ensuring low capex.

“The new A400™ DUO reactor ensures that ASM will extend its position as a leader in the market for Power, Analog, RF, and MEMS applications,” said Hichem M’Saad, ASM Executive Vice President, Global Products. “As 200mm manufacturing began its renaissance, driven by growth in for instance IoT devices, it became clear that our existing furnace technology could still achieve industry-leading results. Combining our technology with the latest innovations in robotics and controls has significantly enhanced the system’s manufacturing capabilities to meet today’s production targets.”



The new DUO is compatible with the original A400™, so existing process recipes can be easily transferred, accelerating system ramp. The system has secured production qualification from multiple customers in Europe, the United States and Asia, including several leaders in power, RF, and MEMS device manufacturing. To date over 20 reactors have been shipped, with a healthy outlook for further shipments.

ASM’s original A400™ vertical furnace system has a proven track record of more than 1000 reactors shipped to customers worldwide and over 25 years of maturity in semiconductor manufacturing. The new system has been modernized to support a variety of growing markets including silicon power, wide band gap semiconductor power, analog, RF and MEMS devices. With its updated control system, software with an intuitive graphical user interface, predictive maintenance by advanced control diagnostics, new robot, and plug-and-play installation, customers can count on the A400™ DUO delivering increased reliability with production output that achieves better repeatability, productivity, and time utilization.

Like its predecessor, the A400™ DUO offers a comprehensive portfolio of process applications including low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) processes like doped silicon and silicon nitride films, diffusion processes such as wet oxidation and anneal processes.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

NASA ALD coating to protect Lunar Astronauts and their equipment

"Constructing a large-volume atomic layer deposition system to create kits that can coat large surface areas, such as rover surfaces, for testing can further benefit technologies for lunar exploration,"

NASA's coating technology could help resolve lunar dust challenge

(Text re-published from: Goddard Space Flight Center LINK

An advanced coating now being tested aboard the International Space Station for use on satellite components could also help NASA solve one of its thorniest challenges: how to keep the Moon's irregularly shaped, razor-sharp dust grains from adhering to virtually everything they touch, including astronauts' spacesuits. 


Although the coating wasn't originally conceived for lunar dust busting, "it's compelling for this application," said Bill Farrell, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who heads a NASA-sponsored research organization, Dynamic Response of the Environments at Asteroids, the Moon, and moons of Mars, or DREAM2, which studies the lunar and Martian environments. The agency considers lunar dust to be among the top challenges to mitigate as it aims to establish sustainable exploration of the Moon by 2028 under its Artemis Program.

Mitigating Electrical Build-Up

Goddard technologists Vivek Dwivedi and Mark Hasegawa originally created the coating for an equally important job: they wanted to create a coating that would help "bleed off" the build-up of electrical charges that can destroy spacecraft electronics. These potentially mission-ending build-ups occur when spacecraft fly through plasma found within Earth's magnetosphere. Plasma contains trapped charged particles that conduct electricity, contributing to the build-up.

Hasegawa's idea was to use an advanced technology called atomic layer deposition to apply super-thin films of indium tin oxide—an effective compound for dissipating electrical charges—onto dry pigments of paint. Once mixed, the paint could then be coated on radiators and other spacecraft components to help mitigate the build-up of electrical charges.

Used ubiquitously by industry, atomic layer deposition involves placing a substrate or sample inside a reactor chamber, which is like an oven, and pulsing different types of gases to create an ultra-thin film whose layers are literally no thicker than a single atom. The beauty of this technique is the fact that it can be applied on virtually anything, including three-dimensional objects.

To test the effectiveness of the pigment-treated paint, Dwivedi and his team then prepared a handful of coated coupons or wafers, which are now being exposed to plasma from an experiment pallet aboard the International Space Station. Hasegawa and Dwivedi expect to get their samples later this year for analysis.

Same Plasma, Same Trouble

As it turns out, the plasma that can damage electronics as spacecraft fly through Earth's magnetosphere is also the source of the Moon's dust problem.

The Moon's dust is made up of ultra-tiny grains—formed by millions of years of meteorite impacts that repeatedly crushed and melted rocks, creating tiny shards of glass and mineral fragments. Not only can they travel at hurricane-like speeds, but they also cling to all types of surfaces, not only because of their jagged edges, but also because of their electrostatic charge.

On the day side of the Moon, harsh, unshielded ultraviolet radiation from the Sun kicks electrons off the dust particles in the upper layers of the lunar regolith or soil, giving the surface of each dust particle a net positive charge. On the dark side as well as in the polar regions, the situation is a little different. Plasma flowing out from the Sun also charges the lunar surface, but, in this case, it deposits electrons and creates a net negative charge. It gets more complex at the terminator where the two sides meet and even stronger electric fields develop—all of which could affect humans or technology that land on the Moon.

For astronauts, the situation will be made worse because they carry their own charge and, as the Apollo missions proved, will attract dust as they rove about the Moon. Because NASA has eyed the Moon's southern pole for possible human habitation, it's especially important that NASA develop efficient ways to dissipate these charges, Dwivedi said.

That got Dwivedi thinking. Why not apply the coating to Moon rovers and even habitats, or use atomic layer deposition to treat the fibers in spacesuit material?

"We have conducted a number of studies investigating lunar dust. A key finding is to make the outer skin of the spacesuits and other human systems conductive or dissipative," Farrell said. "We, in fact, have strict conductivity requirements on spacecraft due to plasma. The same ideas apply to spacesuits. A future goal is for the technology to produce conductive skin materials, and this is currently being developed."

More Research Underway

Working in collaboration with Farrell, Dwivedi and his team, including University of Maryland researcher Raymond Adomaitis, now plan to further enhance their atomic layer deposition capabilities. The team plans to construct a larger reactor, or oven, to increase the yield of the charge-mitigating pigment, which they would then apply to coupons and spacesuit material for testing.

"Constructing a large-volume atomic layer deposition system to create kits that can coat large surface areas, such as rover surfaces, for testing can further benefit technologies for lunar exploration," Farrell said.


Wednesday, November 6, 2019

SAVE THE DATE - ALD For Industry 2020, March 31 to April 1 2020 in Freiburg, Germany

A topical workshop with a focus on industrialization and commercialization of ALD for current and emerging markets Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is used to deposit ultraconformal thin films with sub-nm film thickness control. The method is unique in the sense that it employs sequential self-limiting surface reactions for growth in the monolayer thickness regime. Today, ALD is a critical technology in leading edge semiconductor technology, and the field of application in other industries is increasing rapidly. According to the market estimates, the equipment market alone is currently at an annual revenue of US$ 1.8-1.9 billion (2018), and it is expected to double in the next 4-5 years. In a European context, ALD was invented independently twice in Europe (Russia & Finland), and since the last 15 years, Germany has grown to become one of the most active European markets for ALD in R&D, chemicals, equipment, and end-users.
 

The event is open for Exhibition & Sponsoring as well as contributing Talks & Tutorials. Please contact.

Jonas Sundqvist: E-mail
Katrine Ferse:  E-mail
 
 
This year we will organize the 4th EFDS ALD For Industry Workshop in South Germany (Freiburg), much closer to the other ALD hubs in continental Europe in France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. ALD for Industry provides the opportunity to get in contact with industrial and academic partners to learn more about the fundamentals of ALD technology and to get informed about recent progress in the field. The event will focus on the current markets for ALD and addresses the applications in the Semiconductor industry, MEMS & Sensors, Battery Technology, Medical, Display, Lightning, Barriers, and Photovoltaics.
 
 
 Freiburg, Germany with a central location in Europe and Industrial heartland (Google maps LINK)
 
ALD For Industry is a "Green Event" organized at ETAGE accordingly (LINK)

Resources
The heat supply of the building is based on zero emissions, the general electricity is sourced to 100% from renewable energies, lighting is provided by energy-saving lamps and LEDs.

Responsibility
The ETAGE works exclusively with locally-based service providers who source their products and ingredients regionally, seasonally, and fairly produced.

Environmentally friendly
ETAGE attaches great importance to sustainability: from waste separation through eco-certified crockery to beech wood furniture that is 100% sustainable in the region.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Picosun expands selection of biocompatible ALD materials for medical applications

ESPOO, Finland, 4th November 2019 – Picosun Group, the leading supplier of AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for global industries, expands its selection of biocompatible ALD materials to be used in medical applications.

Picosun’s TiO2 and Al2O3 processes are already used in production of surgical implants and in drug particlecoating for controlled drug delivery. Now, also HfO2, SiO2, ZrO2, Nb2O5, Ta2O5, AlN and TiN ALD films manufactured by Picosun have been tested and validated by an independent third party to be non-cytotoxic and safe to human tissues in e.g. implant applications (*).

This wide variety of materials gives great flexibility in designing novel ALD solutions for a plethora of healthcare uses, when the materials can be used either as such, or combined into nanolaminates or doped films with unique, application-wise tailorable physico-chemical properties (**). 

 
 
Microimplant electronics protected by Picosun’s ALD HfO2. No changes after soaking in 87 oC PBS for over 3 months which correlates to over 10 years in human body. T0 = starting point of the test. Reference: InForMed project, image source CEA-Leti.
 
ALD, with its innate ability to create ultra-thin material layers with the highest conformality, uniformity, and structural quality, has enormous potential to solve various key issues in medical applications where implantable devices are involved. Orthopaedic implants, pacemakers, implantable hearing or eyesight aids, microimplants for sensing, monitoring and analysis applications, and brain or heart probes for therapeutic or diagnostic uses all contain parts that are sensitive to the corrosive environment of the human body. Protective encapsulation of these devices is thus needed to ensure their correct operation, long enough operational lifetime, and also to protect the body from the possible rejection reaction or contaminant leakage from the devices’ corroding parts. Various polymer layers have typically been used as encapsulants, but their downside is their thickness and robustness which unnecessarily increases the mass and dimensions of the implant.  

 
TEM micrographs of Picosun’s ALD nanolaminate and oxide encapsulants after one month soaking tests in 87 oC PBS. No corrosion observed.
 
Compared to polymer encapsulation, ALD offers a truly elegant, sophisticated solution to implant manufacturers. Practically massless and invisible, but still dense, flexible, pinhole- and crack-free ALD thin films cover reliably even the smallest microscale surface features of the coated object, they can be applied at moderate temperatures, and – as now analysed in medical industry’s standard tests – several ALD materials are intrinsically biocompatible. As ALD is a mature, key enabling technology in semiconductor and microelectronics manufacturing for decades already, the processes and practises for industrial introduction and ramp-up exist, and can be readily applied to new fields as well.

”Healthcare sector is one of our key strategic directions. Our patented know-how of ALD-based biocompatible protective encapsulation for implantable medical devices has already raised significant interest amongst industry leading companies. We are pleased that we have now even wider portfolio of materials and solutions that we can provide to these companies. Not only can our ALD technology solve several challenges these industries are currently facing, but also enable completely new components and devices to realize future’s healthcare inventions,” states Dr. Jani Kivioja, CTO of Picosun Group.
 
(*) FICAM – The Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, University of Tampere, Finland: Cytotoxicity tests with cell culture medium according to the ISO 10993-5 standard, and 3 weeks soaking tests in PBS (phosphate-buffered saline) at 87 oC.

An Integrated Cleanroom Process for the Vapor Phase Deposition of Large-Area Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Thin Films

Alexander John Cruz, Energy Scientist, and Doctoral Candidate, KU Leuven, Belgium recently published an integrated cleanroom process for the vapor-phase deposition of large-area zeolitic imidazolate framework thin films.
Robust and scalable thin film deposition methods are essential to realizing the potential of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in electronic devices. Here is the reporting of the first integration of the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of MOF coatings in a custom reactor within a cleanroom setting. As a test case, the MOF-CVD conditions for ZIF-8 are optimized to enable smooth, pinhole-free, and uniform thin films on full 200 mm wafers under mild conditions.
The single-chamber MOF-CVD process and the impact of the deposition parameters are elucidated via a combination of in-situ monitoring and ex-situ characterization. The resulting process guidelines will pave the way for new MOF-CVD formulations and a plethora of MOF-based devices.


Graphical abstract (as shared on Twitter, LINK)


Journal Publication: Chemistry of Materials, Chem. Mater. 2019Publication Date:October 25, 2019
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b03435


Submitted manuscript available for download at ChemRxiv:


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By Abhishekkumar Thakur

Sunday, November 3, 2019

An ultrathin integrated nanoelectromechanical transducer based on ALD ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide

Nanomechanical resonators fabricated with MEMS technology that can operate in the super high frequency (3–30 GHz) or the extremely high frequency (30–300 GHz) regime could be of use in the development of: 
  • stable frequency references
  • wideband spectral processors
  • high-resolution resonant sensors. 
However, such operation requires the dimensions of the mechanical resonators to be reduced to tens of nanometres, and current devices typically rely on transducers, for which miniaturization and chip-scale integration are challenging. 
 
Recently (LINK), researchers at University of Florida were able to fabricate an ultrathin nanoelectromechanical transducer using 10 nm thin ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide (Hf0.5Zr0.5O2) films deposited by ALD on a Veeco CNT Fiji.
 
The figure below summarizes the fabrication process flow for implementation of the 70 nm Si nanomechanical resonators actuated using 10nm Hafnium Zirconium Oxide (Hf0.5Zr0.5O2) film.

MEMS manufacturing flow, as published in the Supporting information (free to download LINK) to Ghatge, M., Walters, G., Nishida, T. et al. An ultrathin integrated nanoelectromechanical transducer based on hafnium zirconium oxide. Nat Electron (2019) doi:10.1038/s41928-019-0305-3.
 
Recommended further reading : An ultrathin nanoelectromechanical transducer made of hafnium zirconium oxide, Tech Explore (LINK)

Saturday, November 2, 2019

As of today BALD Engineering is primarily using the Ecosia search engine

As of today BALD Engineering is primarily using the Ecosia search engine (www.ecosia.org) per default for research producing this blog and other activities, both on Laptops and mobile.


Ecosia still have some weaknesses but have included a link to Google that you can klick for more advanced seraches when needed.

Ecosia supports over 20 tree-planting projects in 15 different countries; Peru, Brazil, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Haiti, Colombia, Spain, Morocco, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia. Until today  teh Ecosia users have contributed to the planting of >70 milion trees.

Until today afternoon 1 tree has been planeted (1 tree / 45 searches) - I expect to make another one!


Besides this, the BALD Engineering Head Quarter project "Tropical Garden" is steaming ahead as well. Currently the office is powered by 200 W solar cells providing 24 h light for the office plants and additional heating as well. Next additional insulation and the addition of a 600 W Windpower plant and maybe some pre solar panels should possibly make the office totally of grid.

Micron claim DRAM Technology Leadership As Samsung And SK Hynix Push Out EUV

  • ASML reported that four EUV lithography systems will be pushed out from shipping in 4Q 2019.
  • My analysis suggests Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are two of the companies pushing our EUV for their memory business.
  • Micron's 1z nm DRAM already is technologically advanced, and are two quarters ahead of Samsung and one year ahead of SK Hynix.

Full article: Micron: DRAM Technology Leadership As Samsung And SK Hynix Push Out EUV, Seeking Alpha (LINK)


A DRAM roadmap by the Information Network showing Micron’s transition to 1z nm and gain of leadership over rivals Samsung and SK Hynix.