Japanese researchers enable high thru put conformal CVD for SiC on Silicon wafer integration

As reported by ACS (LINK) New, concise method proposed for conformal chemical vapor deposition using sacrificial layers (SLs). SLs are porous membranes that filter high sticking-probability species, while allow the passage of low ones.

This is a really clever by researchers at University of Tokyo and IHI Corporation for CVD to compete with ALD on conformality and keeping a high deposition rate and at the same time produce bulk material like SiC on Si for larger wafer diameter.

Figure from ACS Twitter post (LINK)

Reference:

Porous Membranes as Sacrificial Layers Enabling Conformal Chemical Vapor Deposition Involving Multiple Film-Forming Species
Kohei Shima, Yuichi Funato, Noboru Sato, Yasuyuki Fukushima, Takeshi Momose, and Yukihiro Shimogaki
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 45, 51016–51025
Publication Date:October 30, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c14069

ACM Research Enters Dry Processing Market with Launch of CVD/ALD Ultra Furnace

• ACM’s First Furnace Product Targets LPCVD Initially, Oxidation, Annealing and ALD in Future
• ACM Research intends to target customers in China initially, before expanding the offering of the Ultra Furnace into Korea and Taiwan later.
• ACM delivered the first Ultra Furnace tool to a key logic customer’s manufacturing facility in China in early 2020. This tool targets LPCVD, and has been installed in a production environment to begin qualification.

FREMONT, Calif., April 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ACM Research, Inc. (“ACM” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:ACMR), a leading supplier of wafer cleaning technologies for advanced semiconductor devices, today unveiled the Ultra Furnace, its first system developed for multiple dry processing applications. Initially optimized to deliver high performance for low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), the Ultra Furnace also leverages the same platform to be used for oxidation and annealing processes, as well as for atomic layer deposition (ALD). This achievement represents a two-year collaboration between ACM’s R&D teams located in China and Korea.

“Advanced technology nodes present ongoing challenges that require innovation from the capital equipment suppliers. This demanding environment provides significant opportunities for ACM,” explained Dr. David Wang, CEO of ACM Research. “Continuous innovation is in our DNA. We saw a market need that could benefit from our technology, and expanded our reach into a new market segment. The addition of the Ultra Furnace to ACM’s established portfolio of wet processing tools, expands our opportunity by providing an integrated solution to our customers’ advanced products.”

“The Ultra Furnace product is the result of collaboration between our talented experts in China and Korea to develop differentiated technology,” stated YY Kim, CEO of ACM Research Korea. “ACM’s team in Korea was established to complement the talents of our world-class Shanghai team, accelerate our time to market, and provide outstanding technical support to our local customers.”

Deposition processes utilize process gases at a high temperature to react with each other on a silicon wafer, forming a silicon oxide or nitride layer on the wafers. The Ultra Furnace system is intended for batch processing of up to 100 12-inch (300mm) wafers. The innovative system design combines newly developed hardware that improves durability, with the company’s proven software technology and a proprietary control system and algorithm. This enables the tool to provide stable control of pressure, gas flow rate and temperature.

While the Ultra Furnace system targets LPCVD processes, with a few changes to the components and layout, each tool can address other target applications. About 85 percent of the hardware configuration remains unchanged, so the alterations for the new application can be achieved efficiently.

ACM Research intends to target customers in China initially, before expanding the offering of the Ultra Furnace into Korea and Taiwan later. ACM delivered the first Ultra Furnace tool to a key logic customer’s manufacturing facility in China in early 2020. This tool targets LPCVD, and has been installed in a production environment to begin qualification.

Plasma electrons can be used to produce metallic films

Computers, mobile phones and all other electronic devices contain thousands of transistors, linked together by thin films of metal. Scientists at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed a method that can use the electrons in a plasma to produce these films.

The processors used in today’s computers and phones consist of billions of tiny transistors connected by thin metallic films. Scientists at Linköping University, LiU, have now shown that it is possible to create thin films of metals by allowing the free electrons in a plasma take an active role. A plasma forms when energy is supplied that tears away electrons from the atoms and molecules in a gas, to produce an ionised gas. In our everyday life, plasmas are used in fluorescent lamps and in plasma displays. The method developed by the LiU researchers using plasma electrons to produce metallic films is described in an article in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology.

“We can see several exciting areas of application, such as the manufacture of processors and similar components. With our method it is no longer necessary to move the substrate on which the transistors are created backwards and forwards between the vacuum chamber and a water bath, which happens around 15 times per processor”, says Henrik Pedersen, professor of inorganic chemistry in the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at Linköping University.

Henrik Pedersen, Professor at Linköping University. Photographer: David Einar Full size

A common method of creating thin films is to introduce molecular vapours containing the atoms that are required for the film into a vacuum chamber. There they react with each other and the surface on which the thin film is to be formed. This well-established method is known as chemical vapour deposition (CVD). In order to produce films of pure metal by CVD, a volatile precursor molecule is required that contains the metal of interest. When the precursor molecules have become absorbed onto the surface, surface chemical reactions involving another molecule are required to create a metal film. These reactions require molecules that readily donate electrons to the metal ions in the precursor molecules, such that they are reduced to metal atoms, in what is known as a “reduction reaction”. The LiU scientists instead turned their attention to plasmas.

A view into the vacuum chamber showing the plasma above the surface on which the metallic film is created. Photo: Magnus Johansson/Linköping University Full size

“We reasoned that what the surface chemistry reactions needed was free electrons, and these are available in a plasma. We started to experiment with allowing the precursor molecules and the metal ions to land on a surface and then attract electrons from a plasma to the surface”, says Henrik Pedersen.

Hama Nadhom adjusts the gas supply to the vacuum chamber in which LiU researchers study how plasma electrons can be used to create thin metallic films. Photo: Magnus Johansson/Linköping University Full size

Researchers in inorganic chemistry and in plasma physics at IFM have collaborated and demonstrated that it is possible to create thin metallic films on a surface using the free electrons in an argon plasma discharge for the reduction reactions. In order to attract the negatively charged electrons to the surface, they applied a positive potential across it.

The study describes work with non-noble metals such as iron, cobalt and nickel, which are difficult to reduce to metal. Traditional CVD has been compelled to use powerful molecular reducing agents in these cases. Such reducing agents are difficult to manufacture, manage and control, since their tendency to donate electrons to other molecules makes them very reactive and unstable. At the same time, the molecules must be sufficiently stable to be vaporised and introduced in gaseous form into the vacuum chamber in which the metallic films are being deposited.

“What may make the method using plasma electrons better is that it removes the need to develop and manage unstable reducing agents. The development of CVD of non-noble metals is hampered due to a lack of suitable molecular reducing agents that function sufficiently well”, says Henrik Pedersen.

The scientists are now continuing with measurements that will help them understand and be able to demonstrate how the chemical reactions take place on the surface where the metallic film forms. They are also investigating the optimal properties of the plasma. They would also like to test different precursor molecules to find ways of making the metallic films purer.

The research has obtained financial support from the Swedish Research Council, and has been carried out in collaboration with Daniel Lundin, guest professor at IFM.

The article: “Chemical vapor deposition of metallic film using plasma electrons as reducing agents“, Hama Nadhom, Daniel Lundin, Polla Rouf and Henrik Pedersen, (2020), Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, Vol. 38, published online 23 March 2020, doi: 10.1116/1.5142850

https://doi.org/10.1116/1.5142850

Full bibliographic information

“Chemical vapor deposition of metallic film using plasma electrons as reducing agents“, Hama Nadhom, Daniel Lundin, Polla Rouf and Henrik Pedersen, (2020), Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, Vol. 38, published online 23 March 2020, doi: 10.1116/1.5142850

Deposition Precursors Market Growth threatened by COVID-19 impacts

TECHCET announced that the market for atomic layer deposition (ALD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and spin-on deposition (SOD) precursor chemicals needed for semiconductor fabrication is looking healthy for 1Q2020. In particular, demands for cobalt (Co) and hafnium (Hf) precursors are forecasted to grow steadily over the next quarter. However, impacts of COVID-19 on world economies are still uncertain, and precursor market growth may be impacted negatively, as shown in the Figure (below) from TECHCET's latest ALD, CVD, SOD Precursors Quarterly Market Update.

COVID-19 has had an impact on cobalt (Co) metal supply-chains globally, since China dominates production of electric-vehicle batteries which use cobalt as a critical material. The extended manufacturing shut-down in China to limit the spread of COVID-19 after the Lunar New Year holiday cut demand for cobalt chemicals and were further slowed by logistics challenges. Cobalt demand in China and prices are expected to increase in the second-half of 2020.

Trade war and other bilateral trade conflicts relating to semiconductor materials supply (e.g. Japan - South Korea) have triggered a focus on securing localized sources of critical materials in all regions. For example, South Korean IC fabs are now seeking hafnium (Hf), zirconium (Zr), and Rare Earth Elements (REE) supplies from Australia to avoid being dependent on China.

To purchase Report go to: https://techcet.com/shop/

ABOUT TECHCET: TECHCET CA LLC is an advisory service firm focused on process materials supply-chains, electronic materials technology, and materials market analysis for the semiconductor, display, solar/PV, and LED industries. Since 2000, the company has been responsible for producing the Critical Material Reports™ for the Critical Materials Council (CMC), covering silicon wafers, semiconductor gases, wet chemicals, CMP consumables, Photoresists, and ALD/CVD Precursors. For additional information about these reports or CMC subscription membership please contact info@techcet.com, +1-480-332-8336, or go to www.techcet.com.

Electronics Gas Market to reach $8.0B by 2024 despite expected COVID-19 impacts

San Diego, CA, March 30, 2019: TECHCET announced that the semiconductor fabrication gases market is forecasted as net positive in revenue growth for Q1, despite COVID-19. Although economic uncertainties for the remainder of the year may slow growth, current indications from the materials supply-chain look like "business as usual."

"Suppliers say that orders are strong," summarizes TECHCET President and CEO Lita Shon-Roy. "However, concerns exist that fabs may start to stock-pile materials to mitigate the possibility of interruption, especially from US suppliers that are now in the throes of the COVID-19 spread."

One recent positive for chip fabs is helium availability, where non-semiconductor demand is expected to ease. Given the COVID19 situation, medical and recreational (party balloons) helium demand will decline, allowing for the current shortage in the semiconductor supply-chain to mitigate sooner than expected. Major new sources like Gazprom, Arzew, and Qatar are scheduled to finally come online later this year.

TECHCET is also tracking potential disruptions in raw materials for critical gases—e.g. germanium for GeH4 and GeF4, fluorspar for HF, tungsten for WF6—has been minimal, because many Chinese suppliers had prepared safety stock for the Lunar New Year break.

Air Liquide, Air Products, Linde, Messer, and SK Materials have all announced increases in global production of gases. The market for both bulk- and specialty-gases is forecasted to grow from US$5.4B in 2019 to US$8.0B by 2024, as shown in the figure below. However, uncertainties exist for 2020 where demand may soften as a result of a prolonged impact of COVID19 on global economies.

TECHCET’s Critical Materials Report™ on Electronic Gases includes market landscape analysis and company profiles of Air Liquide, Linde, TNSC-Matheson, Versum Materials, Air Products, Showa Denko, SK Materials, Air Water, Hyosung, Peric, Kanto Denka Kogyo, and more. To purchase Report go to: https://techcet.com/product/gases/ 

The Coventor's SEMulator3D software platform

Semiconductor process engineers would love to develop successful process recipes without the guesswork of repeated wafer testing: Process modeling is a powerful technique to predict process results quickly and locate potential process issues without wafer-based testing. These process-modeling capabilities are fully-integrated in the Coventor's (a Lam Research Company) SEMulator3D software platform. Once a process model is built in SEMulator3D, any changes to a proposed integration scheme or device design (such as layout or hardmask thickness changes) can be easily visualized and quantified, without the time and expense of wafer testing. 

The process of building a 3D device using a process model (instead of physical wafers) is called “virtual fabrication”. Using virtual fabrication in conjunction with calibration cycles, process engineers and integration engineers can easily develop a process and integration model. The accuracy and predictability of any model is dependent on the quality of the input data, but SEMulator3D is able to model a wide range of physical process behavior with great accuracy and can solve highly-advanced process problems.

Source: An Introduction to Semiconductor Process Modeling: Process Specification and Rule Verification (LINK)

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By Abhishekkumar Thakur

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.

Presentations of the EuroCVD 22 – Baltic ALD 16 | 2019 conference for download

Please find below the presentations of the EuroCVD 22 – Baltic ALD 16 | 2019 conference (Luxembourg - June 24 to 28, 2019) that has been published online so far (LINK)

Programme: LINK

Invited speakers:

• D2 Simon_Elliott

Oral presentations:

• D1_Alexandre_Michau
• D1_Andre_Strittmatter
• D1_Astié_Vincent D1_Jan-Lucas_Wree
• D1_J._Ruud_van_Ommen_and_Aris_Goulas
• D1_Lovikka_Ville
• D1_Schilirò_Emanuela
• D1_Tony_Schenk
• D2_Evgeniy_Skopin
• D2_Jun_Yamaguchi
• D2_Milad_Mirabedin
• D3_Beer_Sebastian
• D3_Claudia_de_Melo
• D3_Lisa_McElwee_White
• D3_Nishant_Peddagopu
• D4_Ali_Haider
• D4_Andreas_Kafizas
• D4_David_Munoz-Rojas
• D4_David Zanders
• D4_Heikkilä_Mikko
• D4_Kukli_Kaupo
• D4_Laurent_Souqui
• D4_Lokeshwari_Mohan
• D4_Mario_Ziegler
• D4_Yukihiro_Shimogaki
• D5_Jesse_Saari
• D5_Lorenzo_Bottiglieri
• D5_Scarafagio_Marion
• D5_Julian_Pilz

Abstracts

Abstracts_Oral_Presentations_Day_1
Abstracts_Oral_Presentations_Day_2
Abstracts_Oral_Presentations_Day_3
Abstracts_Oral_Presentations_Day_4
Abstracts_Oral_Presentations_Day_5