Showing posts with label PLD - Pulsed Laser Deposition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PLD - Pulsed Laser Deposition. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

The University of Twente’s MESA+ institute has purchased an advanced PLD machine from Solmates

The University of Twente’s MESA+ research institute has purchased an advanced Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) machine from its research partner, the spin-off company Solmates. This device opens the door to the creation of new materials and chips (or individual chip components), which are constructed as a series of layers, each just one atom thick. The new machine will enable MESA+ to further strengthen its position relative to industry. This is because MESA+ NanoLab’s numerous researchers and external users will, from now on, be able to work on an industrial scale. As a result, new scientific knowledge in the areas of unconventional electronics and advanced materials will be more accessible, as well as more suitable for practical application at an earlier stage.



MESA+, the University of Twente’s nanotechnology research institute, is a leader in the creation of extremely thin layers consisting of just a single layer of atoms. This involves using a laser to transform a material into a plasma, which then condenses on a surface to form an extremely thin layer. By layering multiple very thin layers, one over the other, it is possible to create completely new chips (or individual chip components) and materials with properties that have never been seen before. The technique involved – which was partly developed at the University of Twente – is known as Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). Arjen Janssens, CEO of Solmates, expects that by around 2020 PLD will have evolved into one of the standard chip production systems.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Behold - Solmates PLD is the next disruptive deposition technology following ALD

Behold ALD people - After defeating both PVD and CVD numerous times there will be now rest for the PLD guys ar coming - Solmates’ PLD platform is the next disruptive deposition technology following the adoption of atomic layer deposition (ALD) for thin film manufacturing - Welcome to the club PLD people!



ENSCHEDE, the Netherlands, April 18th 2016- Solmates has received an important and high profile order for its Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) equipment from world–leading nanoelectronics research center imec.  The system is scheduled for delivery to imec in Leuven, Belgium during Q2 2016.

Solmates’ advanced PLD equipment is fundamental in helping to accelerate the entry of new processes into commercial products. It plays a key role in the development of future chip designs and the integration of new materials for next generation transistors.

Solmates will become a member of imec’s Industrial Affiliation Program (IIAP) Beyond CMOS. This program focuses on the integration and benchmarking of novel device concepts beyond traditional transistor scaling. These include piezoelectrics for alternative computing devices and 2D materials such as graphene and MoS2 for ultimate scaling.

“This important and significant deal fits our roadmap towards mainstream CMOS compatibility,” commented Solmates’ CEO Arjen Janssens, “Imec is a world-leading center for nanoelectronics with significant global partnerships and therefore represents the perfect gateway to this key market.”

Solmates’ PLD platform is the next disruptive deposition technology following the adoption of atomic layer deposition (ALD) for thin film manufacturing. The technology uses a laser to create a plasma of the material to be deposited, enabling industrial quality deposition of new generation materials. An automated tool offers high yield, customized deposition of various ‘More than Moore’ materials on a wide variety of different substrates. The technology is already in use at various customer sites and several processes are qualified for (Piezo) MEMS, LED and PowerIC applications. Solmates owns key patents related to PLD technology and processes.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Picodeon PLD technology enables microstructural control

Finnish thin film coating specialist Picodeon Ltd Oy has developed* its ultra-short pulsed laser deposition (USPLD) surface coating technology to be able to create either porous or dense aluminium oxide (Al2O3) coatings on heat-sensitive substrates for use in a wide range of industrial metallisation applications. Porous Al2O3 layers are used for instance as filters and electrical insulation layers. Dense Al2O3 is used as a barrier layer and is also an excellent optical coating with high transmittance properties. The Picodeon process enables precise micro-structural control of Al2O3 coatings, and therefore coating characteristics, by the simple management and maintenance of coating process parameters on Coldab® Series4 USPLD batch process coating equipment. 



"This development has enormous potential for new applications of dense and porous aluminium oxide coatings on heat sensitive materials," said Picodeon VP Sales and Business Development Marko Mylläri. "It is currently very difficult to achieve these results using physical vapour deposition (PVD), sputtering or chemical vapour deposition (CVD) surface coating technologies." 

The Coldab® Series4 equipment has built-in online plasma monitoring and laser power measurement that enable very precise management of coating process parameters, as well as a PC controlled automation that records the actions of the coating process. The metrics provided by these systems mean that the coating process, and especially the thin film quality, can be controlled with great accuracy to achieve coating characteristics within highly targeted parameters. Test production runs, for example, showed that the system could improve the porosity of a 3µm Al2O3 coating, for example, from 10 percent to as much as 45 percent by tuning the scanning speed and laser power repetition rate.

The Al2O3 coatings were applied on heat-sensitive polyethylene (PE) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) polymer film substrates. This is possible due to the low process temperatures required for surface coating using Picodeon's Coldab® USPLD system - one of the major benefits of the process.

In addition to Al2O3, the new Picodeon process technology can be used for other coatings as well. Picodeon has produced metallic coatings using Au and Cu, and oxides such as TiO2. Picodeon's recently released ColdAb Series4 equipment is currently being installed in commercial applications, and the company is continuing development to industrialise its USPLD processes and tools towards even larger scale volume production capabilities.


*As far as I know this product comes out of a joint development with PVD Products as stated in earlier    Press releases :

http://www.pvdproducts.com/news/pvd-products-to-build-coldab-series-4-system-for-picodeon-ltd-2