Thursday, November 28, 2019

45 years since the first patent on Atomic Layer Deposition by Tuomo Suntola and Jorma Antson from Finland

Tomorrow it is 45 years since the first patent on Atomic Layer Deposition by Tuomo Suntola and Jorma Antson from Finland. While on LinkedIn, you are using multiple computer chips manufactured by this almost invisible technology that is inside your smartphone, tablet, laptop, PC, internet servers, and many more places. In the periodic table below, ALD processes of ultra-thin films and interfaces containing Si, Al, T, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, W, and some more that are used in those chips are shown. The ALD revolution continues in the field of more efficient solar cells and safer and improved batteries as well as novel applications in energy harvesting, pharmacology, and space exploration! Enjoy!


Animated periodic table of ALD processes from AtomicLimits LINK


It was a honour to meet Dr. Tuomo Suntola yesterday in Dresden on The World Nano Day at EFDS V2019 in Dresden! Vielen Dank an Herrn Dr. Suntola für die Atomlagenabscheidung!


Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Short courses on ALD and ALE by ALD Academy January 14-15, 2020 in Eindhoven, NL

[ALD Academy, LINK] On January 14-15, 2020, the ALD Academy will organize short courses on Atomic Layer Deposition and Etch at TU Eindhoven, The Netherlands.


Description and target audience – During this noon-to-noon event, basically 3 courses will be given, which can be taken individually but also combined. The three courses are:

Program – The program consists of lectures as well as interactive sessions (especially for the Advanced ALD course and the ALE course). For the Advanced ALD course, also a lab visit is planned. The dinner buffet on the evening of January 14 is optional.

The preliminary program schedule is:
January 14, 2020
12:00 – 13:00 Welcome and sandwich lunch
13:00 – 14:45 Introductory ALD course
14:45 – 15:15 Afternoon break
15:15 – 18:30 Advanced ALD course
19:00 – 21:00 Dinner buffet & drinks

January 15, 2020
9:00 – 12:00 Atomic layer etching course
12:00 – 13:00 Sandwich lunch

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Cobalt and Nickel Targets Super Strategic for IC Fabs

[Press Release, TECHCET LLC] San Diego, CA, November 14, 2019: TECHCET-the advisory services firm providing electronic materials information- announced that the global market for Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) Sputter Targets is declining by 1.5% in response to semiconductor fabrication market challenges in 2019. However, 5% growth is forecasted for 2020, with the non-precious-metal segment expected to reach US$690 million. 
 
 
Including precious metals the 2020 Sputter Target market is expected to reach US$1,084 million, as detailed in the latest Critical Materials Report™ (CMR) quarterly update on Sputter Targets (see Figure). This report covers the following suppliers: Furuya Metals, GO Element, Grikin, Honeywell, JX Nippon, KFMI, Materion, Pioneer Materials, Praxair/Linde, Sumitomo, Tanaka, Top Metal Materials, Tosoh SMD, Solar Applied Materials Technology, Umicore, VEM, and Vital Materials.

Purchase Reports Here: https://lnkd.in/dn7euVg

Imec updates semiconductor miniaturization roadmap to 1nm-ITF Japan 2019

Imec held an annual research result presentation event “imec Technology Forum Japan 2019 (ITF Japan 2019)” in Tokyo on October 11.




This is what we are to expect coming next for Logic scaling: Nanosheet transistors (Gate All Around transistors), Buried Power Rails, Ruthenium incorporation, Forksheet transistor architecture, CFET (complementary FET by 3D stacking of nanosheet PFET and NFET), deployment of 2D materials, spintronics, and quantum computing as the way to continued chip scaling for keeping a modified Moore's Law alive.
Source: LINK

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By Abhishekkumar Thakur

Friday, November 22, 2019

The US Patent Office has approved Nanexa’s expanded patent application for the drug delivery platform PharmaShell®

[Press release, Nanexa AB LINK] The US Patent Office has today approved another patent application for Nanexa. The currently approved patent has broader protection than the patent that was approved earlier this year and includes the use of PharmaShell® products for multiple administration methods, such as parenteral injection, inhalation, and oral preparations.



Keynote at ALD for Industry by Prof. Pedersen - ALD as enabler for InN based Electronics

Prof. Henrik Pedersen, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) at Linköping University, Sweden, to give the Keynote at the 4th EFDS ALD for Industry Workshop and Exhibition in Freiburg, Germany on March 31 to April 1, 2020.

Event Page: https://www.efds.org/event/ald2020/


Thursday, November 21, 2019

PEALD processes employing Strem supplied TDMASn precursor presented by diverse groups of researchers

We offer prepackaged precursors in ALD Cylinders!


Atomic layer deposition (ALD) using Tin (Sn) based compounds have been widespread in applications, such as sensors, Li-ion batteries, catalysts, photovoltaics. Recently, researchers have reported state-of-the-art applications like 3D thin-film solid-state batteries (by Pearse et. al.) and efficient perovskite solar cells (by Guan et. al. and Sun et. al.). Many of these applications feature layers that are susceptible to degradation at elevated temperatures. It’s mandatory to deposit SnO2 below 200°C for applications such as perovskite and silicon heterojunction solar cells. Alternatively, plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) with Strem Chemicals’ highly reactive metalorganic precursor, tetrakis(dimethylamino)tin (TDMASn), with a decomposition temperature range of 250–300°C, also enables low deposition temperatures. 


Figure 1. 50-1815 Structure


Strem Chemicals offers TDMASn [Sn[N(CH3)2]4] (catalog number 50-1815) precursor, which has been widely accepted in the PEALD community worldwide for the deposition of tin-based compounds. The colorless to pale yellow liquid phase precursor with a density of 1.169 at 20°C and vapor pressure of 15 Torr is sold pre-packed, in an ALD cylinder by Strem Chemicals (98-4050).



The following are some of the examples of PEALD processes employing Strem supplied TDMASn precursor presented by diverse groups of researchers. 

Hoffmann et. al. report the preparation of transparent conductive gas permeation barriers based on thin films of tin oxide (SnOx) grown by spatial atomic layer deposition (ALD) at atmospheric pressure. They present a comparative study using tetrakis(dimethylamino)tin(IV) and various oxidants (atmospheric pressure oxygen plasma, ozone, and water) at process temperatures in the range of 80–165°C. (Link)



Recent reports by researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology in collaboration with the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), present an extensive characterization of plasma-assisted atomic-layer-deposited SnO2 layers. They aim at identifying key material properties of SnO2 to serve as an efficient electron transport layer in perovskite solar cells. The SnO2 thin films were deposited at substrate temperatures of 50, 100, 150, and 200°C on Czochralski polished c-Si (100) wafers and indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrates in an Oxford Instruments OpAL ALD reactor using tetrakis(dimethylamino)tin (TDMASn) (99% purity, Strem Inc.) as the tin precursor and radio-frequency (RF) inductively coupled oxygen plasma as the co-reactant. (Link)


Figure 3: Perovskite solar cells are one of the most promising emerging cell technologies with fast recent improvement in cell efficiency shown above red/yellow circles reaching >22% cell efficiency (From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository).


An American researcher from University of Maryland, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Sandia National Lab, has reported the experimental realization of fully conformal 3D thin-film solid-state batteries (3D TSSBs) incorporating a SnNx anode (deposited at 200°C using TDMASn and an N2 plasma), demonstrating the simultaneous power-and-energy benefits of 3D structuring. All active battery components—electrodes, solid electrolyte, and current collectors—were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) onto standard CMOS processable silicon wafers. The wafers were microfabricated to form arrays of deep pores with aspect ratios up to approximately 10. Their work shows that the exceptional conformality of ALD, combined with conventional semiconductor fabrication methods, provides an avenue for the successful realization of long-sought 3D TSSBs which provide power performance scaling in regimes inaccessible to planar form factor cells. (Link)
Since 1964, Strem Chemicals, Inc. has been serving its clients from academic, industrial and government research and development laboratories as well as commercial scale businesses in the pharmaceutical, microelectronic and chemical/petrochemical industries. Strem (Headquarters: Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA) is a high purity specialty chemicals manufacturer and supplier. Strem also provides custom synthesis (including high-pressure synthesis) and current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) services. Strem’s products are of high purity, typically 99%, with some at 99.9999% metals purity. 


More than fifty years of experience in manufacturing inorganic and organometallic chemicals has enabled Strem to expand its product offering of MOCVD, CVD, and ALD precursors. They’re continually adding new products for this dynamic and exciting field. Strem’s product range includes:


·         Metal alkyls
·         Metal alkylamides
·         Metal amidinates
·         Metal alkoxides
·         Metal β-diketonates
·         Metal cyclopentadienyls
·         Metal halides
·         Volatile organometallics
·         Volatile metal carbonyls
·         Electronic grade chemicals

Additional Resources:


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Promotional blog written and researched by Abhishekkumar Thakur and Jonas Sundqvist, BALD Engineering AB