Cambridge Nanotech introducing the Gen 2 of ALD Tools - Savannah & Fiji

As reported today by ALDpulse.com and information on the Ultratech web, Ultratech - Cambridge Nanotech introducing the Gen 2 of ALD Tools - Savannah & Fiji. Check out the fresh looking white design and the Video below for more technical detals.

 

Savannah Gen 2 :

"Savannah has become the preferred system for university researchers worldwide engaged in ALD and looking for an affordable yet robust platform. We have delivered hundreds of these systems in the past decade."

White pannels instead of polished stailess steal as before. What will Picosun come up with now? Kulta? :-)

New designed gas box

 

The Fiji (PEALD)

 

"Our Fiji series is a modular, high-vacuum advanced thin films ALD system that accommodates a wide range of deposition modes using a flexible architecture and multiple configurations of chambers, precursors and plasma gases.

 

The result is a next-generation ALD system capable of performing thermal and plasma-enhanced deposition."

 

 

New more ergonomic loading of wafers

 

ALD defined by using only the ten hundred most used words

A funny Tweet came along today from Angel Yanguas-Gil : #ald defined using the up-goer five editor: http://t.co/e6L2hItJ. The challenge is Can you explain a hard idea using only the ten hundred most used words?

i grow stuff layer by layer using tiny things that fly through the air and that break down when they touch the stuff I am growing. As they break they form a layer until they don't break anymore. But then I use a kind of air that changes my stuff and lets me start all over again and add a second layer. By repeating this many times, I can get to grow thicker stuff. I grow my stuff inside a sort of can that keeps me from breathing the things i use because they could kill me or make me sick. The stuff that I grow can be used to make computers or get power from the sun.

 

Please do chek out the web page of Angel Yanguas-Gil - it contains amongst other things an equation for ALD:

 

 

Good news for ALD "Triple patterning seems like it maybe too expensive to be worth it."

28nm is the last process node that does not require double patterning. At 20nm and below, at least some layers require double patterning, according to Paul McLellan at SemiWiki. Furthermore, he says that SADP/SIT is needed for 10nm for a few layers and then double patterning will be used above that. "Triple patterning seems like it maybe too expensive to be worth it." The same goes for EUV "either there is a miracle in improvement of the power of the light source (and some other problems are solved). Or 10nm slips out several years."

So why is this good news for ALD fanatics? SADP means a good opportunity for conformal ALD processes!  Many cool options are out there, such as ow temperature PEALD or catalytic ALD processes for example. Most commonly SiO2 or Si3N4 is used but assuming selctivity is given you could also use other materials. Check out the last picture below for the process flow for SAPD

Paul McLellan explains the terminology for the future patterning options:

• double patterning is called LELE (as in Litho-etch-litho-etch or DPT)
• triple patterning called LELELE (as in Litho-etch-litho-etch-litho-etch or TPT)
• self-aligned double patterning (SADP) also sometimes called sidewall image transfer (SIT)
• EUV, 14nm wavelength instead of 193nm, so we can go back to single exposure

 

"Examples of metal routing configuration in design and with double (DPT) and triple patterning technology (TPT), showing the potentially large benefit for pattern density of triple patterning for 1D features. The different colors of the polygon in the decomposed layouts represent the different mask target layouts (two masks for DPT, three masks for TPT)." [Source SPIE/Synopsys Inc.]

 

 

Process flow for multiple patterning process: self-aligned (spacer) double pattering a) features after the photolithographic patterning, b) conformal Si3N4 deposition, c) Spacer production by anisotropic etching, d) removing the resist mask, e) anisotropic etching of the underlying layer (eg poly-Si), f) Final hard mask for the removal of the spacer material with denser lines [Source Wikipedia]



Meglow hollow cathode plasma source for PEALD reactors reducing oxygen contamination

According to a recent press release: "Meaglow Ltd. (Privately Held) announces a breakthrough in semiconductor production. As computer chips become smaller and smaller, advanced production techniques, such as Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) have become more important for depositing thin layers of material. Unfortunately the ALD of some materials has been prone to contamination from the plasma sources used. Meaglow Ltd has developed a hollow cathode plasma source which has reduced oxygen contamination by orders of magnitude, allowing the reproducible deposition of semiconductor materials with improved quality."

 

 

"The breakthrough has been shown in a recent publication of oxygen reduction figures for the hollow cathode plasma source supplied last year to the group of Professor Necmi Biyikli, of the Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, at Bilkent University in Turkey. The plasma source was used to upgrade their existing Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system by replacing an inductively coupled plasma source. The publication in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C (J. Mater. Chem. C 2 (2014) 2123) shows a reduction in oxygen content of orders of magnitude compared to previous results. There is also a marked improvement in material quality. These results render the older inductively coupled plasma sources obsolete for many applications."

 

Information from the web pageof MEAglow: The hollow cathode plasma source has been designed to allow for a quick  on/off process without major power oscillation. The plasma source also  does not have the oxygen contamination problems that plague many  inductively coupled and microwave plasma sources - due to interaction  between the plasma species and ceramic introduction windows.  Capacitively coupled plasma sources are another plasma source that do  not generally have oxygen contamination problems, however these sources  only have electron densities of 10⁹ to 10¹⁰ cm³, in the lower less active region of our hollow cathode source we have measured an electron density of 9x10¹¹ cm³, and a higher density is expected closer to the RF electrode. Another  advantage of this type of plasma source is that it can be scaled by  simply increasing the number of hollow cathode holes.

 

[Source Meaglow.com]

 

 

System Application: Meaglow system, Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE), Low Pressure Metalorganic Chemical Vapour Deposition (LPMOCVD), Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD).

 

 

Example of an installation at the Bilkent University ALD System converted for use with a Meaglow Hollow Cathode Plasma Source. Looks like a Cambridge Nanotech Fiji system (?) [Source Meaglow.com]

 

Here is a PDF loaded with Infomration: http://www.meaglow.com/Hollow_cathode.pdf

Samsung: A modified double patterning using ALD allows for continued scaling of DRAM for 10nm class technology

Samsung reports that they are  now mass producing industry’s most advanced 4Gb DDR3, using 20 nanometer process technology:

"Samsung has pushed the envelope of DRAM scaling, while utilizing currently available immersion ArF lithography, in its roll-out of the industry’s most advanced 20-nanometer (nm) 4-gigabit (Gb) DDR3 DRAM."

"With DRAM memory, where each cell consists of a capacitor and a transistor linked to one another, scaling is more difficult than with NAND Flash memory in which a cell only needs a transistor. To continue scaling for more advanced DRAM, Samsung refined its design and manufacturing technologies and came up with a modified double patterning and atomic layer deposition."

"Samsung’s modified double patterning technology marks a new milestone, by enabling 20nm DDR3 production using current photolithography equipment and establishing the core technology for the next generation of 10nm-class DRAM production. Samsung also successfully created ultrathin dielectric layers of cell capacitors with an unprecedented uniformity, which has resulted in higher cell performance."

Here is a folow up blog post from the Samsung Blog: So…About Samsung Mass Producing the Most Advanced 20nm DDR3 DRAM explaining why the dielectric layers (high-k) in the DRAM capacitor memory cell need to be a ‘ultrathin dielectric layer’ for the 20nm DDR3 DRAM compared to the 25 nm cell.

"Why are the 20nm DDR3 DRAM’s dielectric layers ultrathin rather than ultra-thick? Because the thicker the dielectric layers are, the fewer electrical charges are stored in the cell’s transistors; there is simply less room for them. Then how is it that Samsung 20nm DDR3 DRAM’s ultrathin layers are effective?

The material used in the 20nm DDR3 DRAM is measured in Angstrom (Å), a unit of length equal to 10−10 m, basically the size of an atom. The ultrathin dielectric layers of Samsung are composed of atomic materials, aka atomic layer deposition. This is why the amount of electric charges stored in the capacitor of the 20nm DDR DRAM doesn’t change much, in a significantly scale downed cell. Overall, the quality of the each cell of Samsung’s 20nm DDR DRAM is superior to the preceding 25nm DDR3 DRAM. Consequently, 20nm DDR3 DRAM’s superior cells enable high-speed operation, which is the most important characteristic of a DRAM, and low power consumption. Making the dielectric layers of the 20nm capacitor much denser and thinner than the 25nm capacitor was one of the keys to the successful development and now mass producing Samsung’s new 20nm 4G DDR3."

From a Chipworks report abstract that can be bought here, we can see a cross section of the stack capacitor array Samsung is using at 26 nm (see below). For 20 nm I have not been able to find any free available information yet.

The Samsung K4B4G0846C-BCK0 is a 4Gb DDR3 SDRAM manufactured at 26 nm, based on the half minimum pitch ("20nm generation"). The technology features capacitor-over-bitline DRAM cell arrays.

 

Wikipedia on Multiple Patterning: Multiple patterning is a class of technologies for manufacturing integrated circuits (ICs), developed for photplithography to enhance the feature density. The simplest case of multiple patterning is double patterning, where a conventional lithography process is enhanced to produce double the expected number of features. The resolution of a photoresist pattern begins to blur at around 45 nm half-pitch. For the semi conductor industry, therefore, double patterning was introduced for the 32 nm half-pitch node and below, mainly using state-of-the-art 193 nm immersion lithography tools.

 

 

A basic example of a double patterning techniques using Spacer mask: first pattern; deposition by e.g. SiO2 ALD or PEALD; spacer formation by etching; first pattern removal; etching with spacer mask;  final pattern [Source Wikipedia]

 

There are many types of double patterning and when used in combination it iscalled  multiple patterning. Those are:

• Dual-tone photoresist
• Dual-Tone Development
• Self-aligned spacer
• Double/Multiple exposure
• Double Expose, Double Etch (mesas)
• Double Expose, Double Etch (trenches)
• Directed self-assembly (DSA)

Please see Wikipedia on more information on each type.

 

 

Jusung signed a Space Divided Plasma (SDP) system equipment supply contract with SK Hynix

According to a press release from www.businesskorea.co.kr "Jusung Engineering announced on March 20 that it signed a Space Divided Plasma (SDP) system equipment supply contract with SK Hynix. The purpose of this new technology is to respond to next-generation semiconductor device manufacturing processes. The contract makes the first case in which the system is applied to mass production lines."

 

"The SDP system constitutes a part of the atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, which is a key of semiconductor production, and has novel features such as nitridation, oxidation, doping, and film treatment as well as insulating film deposition, conductive film deposition and high k film deposition. Jusung’s equipment is characterized by being capable of overcoming the damage that plasma and high temperatures can do to semiconductor devices while forming the best film quality even at a low temperature. This can contribute to the development and manufacturing of advanced semiconductor devices and easier repair and maintenance of the equipment itself. The SDP system supplied to SK Hynix at this time is a metal film deposition apparatus in particular. It is low resistance and can reduce the electrode resistance value by at least 50 percent compared to existing ones."

 

 

 

The Jusung Cyclone chambers has a 5 wafer rotating heater stage and can operate in Spatial ALD as well as pulsed CVD mode enhancing the troughput considerably for many 3D and thicker film ALD applications. Some examples are High-k, silicon oxide for double patterning and metal electrodes such as TiN. That is why this technology has had success in DRAM industry (Qimonda [R.I.P.], Winbond, SK Hynix, ...) More information from Jusung web on the Jusung Cyclone+ plattform can be found here.

The Xi`an Jiatong University in China purchased a PEALD system from SENTECH in Germany

As reported in a press release: SENTECH Instruments has developed the advanced PTSA (planar triple spiral antenna) inductively coupled plasma source which provides the core plasma technology used in the ICP plasma etcher for low damage and high rate etching and which is used in the ICPECVD low temperature deposition systems. Only recently SENTECH Instruments expanded its ICPECVD processing by ALD and plasma enhanced ALD systems to be able to deposit highly conformal and dense thin metal oxide and metal layers.

The Xi`an Jiatong University in China purchased one of SENTECH`s innovative Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) systems. The ALD system is equipped with a SENTECH in situ laser ellipsometer and represents a unique tool to monitor and develop new ALD processes. The SENTECH in situ laser ellipsometer used in advanced real time growth process monitoring offers excellent results especially as both tools are made by SENTECH Instruments.

The in situ ellipsometer integrated into the ALD system in Xi'an enables its users to measure film thickness and refraction index of deposited layers during processing with high time resolution. The ALD system was configured for thermal processing and plasma enhanced processing which can be incorporated in recipes without manual interference. Both processes were demonstrated by depositing aluminium oxide (Al2O3).

The contact person at Xi`an Jiatong University is Mrs Ji Xing, technical assistant at the Centre of Nanomaterial for Renewable Energy. She will supervise all experiments and research activities related to the ALD system in the future. After installation and in depth technical training and introduction to processing by SENTECH technical service Mrs Xing was able to operate the ALD and the ellipsometer perfectly by herself.

Quoting Mrs. Xing:

"We are more than satisfied with the smooth professional work of the SENTECH technical service and SENTECH has met all of our expectations concerning the ALD system and its ellipsometer.

The excellent performance of all processes motivated Xi'an University to order additional processes for their new ALD system and SENTECH is glad to provide application support and we are looking forward to further cooperation!"

SoLayTec's Ultra Fast Spatial ALD and motion of wafers by the double floating principle

As reported earlier, Levitech has sipped Spatial ALD equipment to an Asian customer. Levitech is in strong competition with another Dutch Spatial ALD equipment manufacturer, SoLayTec based in Eindhoven. SoLayTec offers a modular concept, either the InPassion LAB tool for optimizing the cell design or an InPassion ALD tool for customers that are already integrating ALD into their production. One advantage is that both products are based on identical core process modules. This makes it easy to ramp-up from low to high volume production.

 

The user is flexible in choosing a certain recipe, thus adjusting process parameters like layer thickness, precursor flow and deposition temperature  The InPassion ALD consists of 4, 6 or 8 deposition units and has a throughput up to 4500 wph. For maximizing uptime, the tool continues production during a failure of one deposition unit.

 

(a) In spatial ALD the TMA and H2O steps are separated in space by an inert gas (in this case N2). (b) In the deposition unit the wafer oscillates underneath the spatial ALD injector head. (c) The InPassion ALD features two main conveyors  that feeds various ALD units at either side of the conveyor.
 

See more at: http://www.solaytec.com or check out the promotion video below available on Youtube.

Video from NASA Goddard´s Detector Technology Lab and use of ALD to manufacture QWIPs

 

A video report from Detector Development Lab at NASA Goddard showing the use of ALD amongst other techniques to manufacture QWIPs - Quantum Well Infrared Photodectors. The QWIP detector on Landsat 8 is just one example of many missions supported by the DDL. They have built and packaged detectors to cover wavelengths from X-ray to microwave, in support of missions such as ASTRO-H, SWIFT, HAWC, Suzaku, and JWST.

Video transcript by NASA: As part of NASA's Earth Observing Fleet Landsat has been monitoring the planet's health for over 40 years. With stunning images in multiple wavelengths, Landsat provides valuable data to farmers, scientist, city planners, as well as the public. And behind these images lies QWIP, the Quantum Well Infrared Photodector, which is processed here in the Detector Development Lab at NASA Goddard. Similar to the sensor in your digital camera or cell phone, the QWIP detector is designed to be more sensitive and to detect specific wavelengths. Let me show you how these high-end detectors are created. The spectrum of light contains many wavelengths of which the colors of visible light are a small portion. We have built and packaged detectors to cover wavelengths from Microwave to X-ray The basic goal of a detector is to absorb the energy from a region of these wavelengths of light and turn it into an electrical signal. The first step for us is to take the wavelength, resolution, and sensitivity requirements of the mission and turn that into a detector design using CAD software. The layout is sliced into individual layers or masks that will be combined during fabrication to create the final detector device.

 

Welcome to the Detector Development Lab. This is a unique, Class 100 clean room where we have the agility and technology to develop first-of-a-kind detectors as well as the experience and the process control to turn those into flight qualified products. All of the specialized equipment in this lab is used for 1 of 3 general purposes - Lithography, Etching, and Deposition. Together these 3 processes make up our basic toolset. The first basic process is called Lithography. Don't adjust your picture, the yellow lights provide protection for photoresist, a photosensitive polymer that is used to define the detector geometries to as small as 1 micron. The first step in lithography is to apply photoresist to the substrate. This is done by spinning on a liquid suspension of the polymer in the spin-coater. The coated wafer is taken to the photo-mask aligner, where the chrome-on-quartz mask that was created by the design and layout is placed in extremely close proximity to the substrate and aligned to existing patterns with in a micron of accuracy. A UV light source exposes the photoresist through the mask, transferring the pattern into the photoresist. Finally the substrate is developed, rinsing away the exposed areas of the photoresist.

 

The next step is to use this protective mask and etch to remove material from the exposed areas of the substrate. We have a wide variety of methods for removing materials including wet chemical etchants, reactive plasmas, and ion sputtering. In one of the most fascination examples, the Deep-Reactive-Ion Etcher uses short etching and passivation cycles in a high-power ICP chamber to etch silicon 100's of microns deep with 100:1 aspect ratios. After etching, the photoresist mask is stripped off in a solvent and the substrate is ready for deposition of the next layer of material.

 

 

A Goddard cleanroom process engineer placing a gallium arsenide wafer into the loadlock of a BENEQ TFS 200 ALD process reactor. [screendump 04:05 min from video below]  

Deposition is the third basic process in our toolset and it covers a wide range of specific processes and materials. During deposition, a thin film of material is added back to the surface of the detector's substrate. Materials run the gamut from insulating dielectrics to metal-nitrides, to pure metals and even superconductors. Here in the Atomic-Layer-Deposition system, single atomic layers of materials can be built up one-by-one for precise control of thickness and uniformity. Once the deposition is complete the substrate goes back to lithography to pattern the new layer of material. In building up the designed detector we start with a substrate such as silicon or gallium arsenide wafers.

 

Next, numerous iteration of these 3 basic process steps are applied to the substrate in order to build up the materials and geometry needed to detect the energy of interest such as IR, define the pixels and allow electrical read-out, while meeting all the scientific requirements for the mission. Here is a gallium arsenide wafer with 16 QWIP arrays that has completed fabrication.

 

The substrate is taken to our packaging lab where it is diced into individual dies. The die are screened, then meticulously cleaned and indium-bump bonded directly to a specialized Read-Out Integrated Circuit, which converts the raw electrons generated in each detector pixel to a signal that can be interfaced to the instrument's computers. Finally, the detector and ROIC are bonded to the necessary fixtures and PC boards and the detector subsystem is ready for integration with the rest of the scientific instrument.

 

The QWIP detector on Landsat 8 is just one example of many missions supported by the DDL. We have built and packaged detectors to cover wavelengths from X-ray to microwave, in support of missions such as ASTRO-H, SWIFT, HAWC, Suzaku, and JWST. Each detector was specifically designed to meet the science and mission requirements, developed, fabricated, packaged, tested, and delivered for integration. These unique capabilities at Goddard have helped NASA to stay on the cutting edge of instrument development and scientific discovery. SFX

 

 

 

Another NASA Lab using ALD is NASA/JPL's Microdevices Lab (MDL). According to their equipment list they are operating two ALD systems:  

 

Oxford Plasmalab 80 OpAL Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) System with Radical Enhanced Upgrade

Beneq TFS-200 Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) System

Levitech BV sells a Levitrack® ALD system to one of Taiwan’s largest solar cell makers and receives repeat order for second ALD system

According to a press realse today Levitech BV "announced that one of Taiwan’s largest solar cell manufacturers transferred a Levitrack Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system to manufacturing, and placed an order for a second Levitrack system to be shipped in the second quarter."

“The Levitrack has a proven record in high volume manufacturing and our customer was satisfied with the excellent performance. They decided to order a second system for their expansion for the production of high-efficiency crystalline solar cells. This system will be used for PERC cells - with efficiencies exceeding 20% - , as well as multi-crystalline and n-type products”, said Jaap Beijersbergen, CEO of Levitech.

“This client chose our Levitrack ALD system based on its significant productivity, cost-of-ownership and process advantages over competitive PECVD and ALD systems for aluminum oxide (Al2O3) applications, Beijersbergen concluded.

The Levitrack’s unique spatial ALD process and high throughput result in a superior cost-of-ownership of the overall passivation process flow and helps any client to address current and future technology needs.

Here are some insights from the Levitech web and a YouTube movie (below) into how their Spatial ALD Technology works:

 

1) The Levitrack™ ALD system is based on the new concept of precursor separation in space, as opposed to time, in combination with the unique floating wafer and conductive heating technology used in the Levitor RTP products. Substrates are floating in a linear gas track, and are heated to the required process temperature (below 300°C) within a matter of seconds. [screendump from youtube movie below]

2) At process temperature, the substrates float through a series of ALD deposition cells. Each cell consists of 2 precursors, which are separated in space by a Nitrogen purge (acting as inert gas curtains).A sequence of precursor 1, Nitrogen purge, precursor 2, and again, Nitrogen purge will result in the deposition of 1 monolayer. The number of active ALD deposition cells depends on the required layer thickness. [screendump from youtube movie below]

French ALD Equipment supplier Encapsulix has shipped a deposition system to a leading OLED lighting supplier in Europe

The french ALD Equipment supplier Encapsulix based in Aix-en-Provence has announced that a Gen-2.5 deposition system has been shipped to a "leading OLED lighting supplier in Europe".Encapsulix announced tin October 2013 hat they received such an order and this should then be the shippment - congratulations!

 

"Encapsulix announced today the sale of an Infinity(tm) 500 manufacturing equipment to a leading OLED lighting manufacturer for Atomic Layer Deposition Encapsulation.

 

The Infinitytm 500 has been developed utilizing Encapsulix’s patented & proprietary Atomic Layer Deposition technology. The Infinitytm 500 product family deposits barrier and encapsulation films on substrates up to 500mm x 400mm and is the work horse for Gen2 OLED applications. The order received from a leading OLED lighting manufacturer is scheduled to be delivered end of 2013. The system provides the best ultrabarrier performance and cost of ownership for the manufacturing of OLED devices. The Infinitytm 1000 for Gen5 and 5.5 will be introduced in 2014 along with the Infinity tm Flex500 and 1000 for flexible organic substrates and rolls."

 

According to the information on the webpage the inovation in Encapsulix ALD technology lays in an assembly of modular precursor dosers and gas injectors that behave as a monolithic “unit”

 

 

Picture from a patent : Gas injection device with uniform gas velocity US 20130019978 A1

• Assemble application-specific systems based on common technology bricks
• Factor of 5-100 throughput increase through massive parallel deployment
• Commonality in hardware, Process between R&D, Prototype, Manufacturing

Atomic Layer Deposition engineers met in San Diego during SEMATECH’s Q1 Manufacturing Week 17-20th Feb

As reported earlier here on the ALD News Blog, Atomic Layer Deposition engineers met in San Diego during SEMATECH’s Q1 Manufacturing Week to benchmark ASM, TEL, HKE, AMAT and JUSUNG equipment productivity and to share some best known methods from the HVM Fabs. Samsung, tsmc, Intel, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM, UMC, Winbond, HP and Freescale engineers all participated. The topics of key interest are:

1) Cost of precursor and dry-precursor usage – taring the weight of dry precursors is not fail safe and therefore not HVM friendly

2) Cost savings were identified of $800K per tool per year

3) Some OEM equipment still not being HVM friendly even after 10 years of ALD in manufacturing (HVM hardening & readiness is low compared to other equipment types)

4) FDC approaches and data collection frequencies (looking at 10Hz for metal ALD right now but potentially requiring 100Hz moving forward)

5) Trap installation, Helium de-gassers and special fore-line consideration

 

 

Boyd Finlay project manager from Manufacturing Technology at SEMATECH in Albany together with ALD Equipment Engineers and Experts from the top Leading Edge Fabs. 

 

Atomic Layer Deposition engineers from Samsung, tsmc, Intel, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM, UMC, Winbond, HP and Freescale engineers all participated in the meeting.

GlobalFoundries and Fraunhofer IIS to collaborate on EUROPRACTICE, Europe’s MPW wafer shuttle program

Press release
GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS today announced the extension of their long-term collaboration, focusing on 40nm and 28nm processes. GLOBALFOUNDRIES will also join the European Multi Product Wafer (MPW) Program EUROPRACTICE.

Through the collaboration GLOBALFOUNDRIES will offer its leading-edge foundry capabilities to Fraunhofer IIS as an aggregator, and Fraunhofer will enable the academic network in Europe to get access to GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ process technologies and Process Design Kits (PDK) via EUROPRACTICE.

“As one of the largest foundries worldwide and the largest wafer manufacturer in Europe we are proud to enter this prestigious program,” said Karl Lange, GLOBALFOUNDRIES Vice President of Sales for Europe. “With Fraunhofer as channel partner, combined with our broad technology portfolio and process know-how, we will add significant value to EUROPRACTICE.”
 

“The offer of GLOBALFOUNDRIES technologies down to 28nm to Europe’s universities and research institutes is an important step for EUROPRACTICE and will stimulate education and research in IC design,” said Josef Sauerer, Head of the Integrated Circuits and Systems Department at Fraunhofer IIS. “Also, our contract research with industries will benefit from GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ advanced technology portfolio”

Fraunhofer IIS and GLOBALFOUNDRIES started their collaboration in 2004 with the successful launch of 180nm and later 55nm programs. The extended collaboration will introduce technology nodes down to 28nm in the European Wafer Shuttle Program, helping European academia and research institutes to get access and support for CAD tools and ASIC prototyping at reduced costs.

A 3D Printer That Can Build A House way faster than a Fab can Build a CMOS Processor

Researchers Are Making A 3D Printer That Can Build A House In 24 Hours

At The University of Southern California, Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis has built a colossal 3D printer that can build a house in 24 hours.

 

 

Khoshnevis’s robot comes equipped with a nozzle that spews out concrete and can build a home based on a set computer pattern. Read the story here.

 

World´s oldest High-k analyzed by Atom Probe!

The World´s oldest mineral analyzed by Atom Probe - a Zircon based High-k! No wonder the DRAM guys finally converged at a ZrO2 based high-k and are stuck in that material since then on. Detailed anylysis by atom probe revield clusters of Yttrium and Lead. Check out the paper by Valley et al of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the University of Wisconsin-Madison below.

 

 

The nearly 4.4 billion year old zircon, showing examples of clusters of mapped atoms (Picture from ars technica).

 

Hadean age for a post-magma-ocean zircon confirmed by atom-probe tomography

 

John W. Valley, Aaron J. Cavosie, Takayuki Ushikubo, David A. Reinhard, Daniel F. Lawrence, David J. Larson, Peter H. Clifton, Thomas F. Kelly, Simon A. Wilde, Desmond E. Moser, Michael J. Spicuzza

Nature Geoscience 2014 DOI:doi:10.1038/ngeo2075 Published online 23 February 2014

 

Abstract:

 

The only physical evidence from the earliest phases of Earth’s evolution comes from zircons, ancient mineral grains that can be dated using the U–Th–Pb geochronometer. Oxygen isotope ratios from such zircons have been used to infer when the hydrosphere and conditions habitable to life were established. Chemical homogenization of Earth’s crust and the existence of a magma ocean have not been dated directly, but must have occurred earlier. However, the accuracy of the U–Pb zircon ages can plausibly be biased by poorly understood processes of intracrystalline Pb mobility. Here we use atom-probe tomography to identify and map individual atoms in the oldest concordant grain from Earth, a 4.4-Gyr-old Hadean zircon with a high-temperature overgrowth that formed about 1 Gyr after the mineral’s core. Isolated nanoclusters, measuring about 10 nm and spaced 10–50 nm apart, are enriched in incompatible elements including radiogenic Pb with unusually high ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ratios. We demonstrate that the length scales of these clusters make U–Pb age biasing impossible, and that they formed during the later reheating event. Our tomography data thereby confirm that any mixing event of the silicate Earth must have occurred before 4.4 Gyr ago, consistent with magma ocean formation by an early moon-forming impact about 4.5 Gyr ago.

Air Products Executive Calls for Collaboration to Maintain Pace of Innovation in Semiconductor Industry

Materials Suppliers and OEMs Need to Work Together to Develop Next Generation Materials

Press Release: True collaboration between material suppliers, OEMs and semiconductor manufacturers is necessary to develop solutions needed to maintain the pace of innovation in the global semiconductor industry. That was the message from Ed Shober, vice president Advanced Materials and Delivery Systems for Air Products (NYSE: APD) who recently spoke at SEMICON Korea's Executive Forum.

 

 

 

For years, materials have played a critical role in the scaling of IC devices. Looking ahead, as device geometries continue to shrink, materials will play an increasingly more critical role in semiconductor manufacturer's success. The move to 3-D structures such as FinFETS and Vertical NAND have created additional material processing steps that require chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), etching and atomic layer deposition to coat and fill structures.

 

"This increasing need for new materials is taxing all of us along the development supply chain," said Shober. "New materials are needed, they must be integrated and the result must not impact cost per wafer, not increase capital cost, not impact yield but must enable high throughput."

 

Materials suppliers have generally assumed the lion's share of the development costs of new materials. These include discovery, applications testing, scaling to manufacture, packaging and analytical, safe and reliable shipping and support at the customer's site. All without the promise of a market and with the risk of materials being quickly commoditized.

 

"We as material suppliers, because of the importance materials are playing in scaling, have reached a critical fork in the road," said Shober. "We can continue down the road we know which will most likely not result in a suitable return on investment or we can choose the road that many have spoken about yet not many have chosen—strategic partnerships. True collaboration can address the problems at hand and develop solutions which enable everyone to share in the success."

 

Device scaling has enabled affordability and far-reaching technologies that has improved countless lives. To continue to make these improvements possible, the pace of innovation must be maintained.

"This requires genuine and close collaboration with a shared vision, so all members of the team know what is required, when it is needed and the economics for the same," noted Shober.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1760077#ixzz2uSz15b1t

Encapsulation solutions from Dresden presented at ICCG 10

Encapsulation solutions from Dresden presented at ICCG 10

 

As reported in a press release: "The industrial product development focuses more and more on flexible electronics. Thus the technology of organic electroluminescence is on the verge of being launched onto the market. Therefore, high-quality functional films are required in reasonable quantities for the industrial manufacturing of flexible electronic devices. Flexible solar cells based on inorganic or organic semiconductors and flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) provide new possibilities for the integration of photovoltaic or intelligent lighting in buildings and commodity items. Even flexible displays or innovative packaging concepts for pharmaceutical and cosmetic products are on their way to commercialization. All mentioned products have one thing in common: The active layers have to be protected from humidity and oxygen in order to guarantee a reliable functionality over the product lifetime.

 

Currently, the encapsulation technologies for these flexible electronic devices are mostly still in the research or pilot stage. The cluster FLEET – a Fraunhofer initiative - combines the competences of three Fraunhofer Institutions (FEP, IWS and COMEDD), one institute of the Technical University Dresden (IAPP) and one medium-sized company (SEMPA Systems) in this area of expertise. The intention of the cluster is the fast further development of encapsulation technologies to make them ready for the industrial and serial production, by an intensive cooperation along the value chain concentrated at one location."

 

Cluster FLEET will presents its expertise at ICCG 10 (The International Conference on Coatings on Glass and Plastics - Advanced Coatings for Large-Area or High-Volume Products) from 22^nd until 26^th June 2014, in Dresden.

 

 

You can save more than 25% with the early bird fee and register until March 3, 2014 for the event.

 

Furthermore there are a lot of sponsoring opportunities. Book your exhibition space here for presenting your services and products to  an excellent community of experts. Fraunhofer COMEDD will also offer a company tour on Friday, June 27, 2014. You can register for it also at the organizer of the conference.

 

For all information regarding sponsorship, preliminary program as well as the registration form, please take a look at the homepage: http://www.iccg10.de/

 

 

Industrial Robotics Boost Picosun's Production ALD Systems

Press Release: Picosun Oy, the leading Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment manufacturer, has expanded its selection of high volume manufacturing solutions by launching a patented, fully automatic sample handling system based on industrial robotics.

The customer proven robot loading system is ideal for Picosun's large scale batch ALD reactors such as the PICOSUN™ P-300B and PICOSUN™ P-1000 models. An especially efficient production rate can be achieved by clustering several P-300B batch ALD tools together and synchronizing the sample loading and unloading of the individual tools with the robot.

 

Sample handling with an industrial robot is particularly suitable when processing large amounts of 3D objects such as automotive components and other mechanical engineering products, coins, OLED displays, powders, and articles for decorative coatings. Typically these are items which, when packed in large batches, require a sturdy and fast loading system capable of smooth handling of heavy loads, especially considering the high production throughput requirements for many industries. Batch pre-heating and/or post-deposition high temperature may also render manual handling impossible.

 

Naturally, also large batches of silicon wafers or glass sheets can be easily manipulated with a robot.

In addition to industrial robotic systems, the sample handling options available for PICOSUN™ ALD tools now include a linear loader, vacuum load lock, central vacuum robot sample handling unit (for vacuum cluster configurations), pneumatic chamber lift (for manual operation), and loading through an inert atmosphere glove box.

 

"We are pleased to expand our already unrivalled selection of sample loading options with industrial robotics. The possibility to integrate fully automatic robot operation with our large scale production ALD tools enables us to technologically breakthrough to completely new high volume manufacturing application areas previously unknown to ALD," states Mr. Timo Malinen, Chief Operating Officer of Picosun.

 

Picosun's leading ALD thin film technology enables an industrial leap into the future by novel, cutting-edge coating solutions, with four decades of innovative and pioneering expertise in the field. Today, PICOSUN™ ALD systems are in daily production use in numerous prominent industries around the globe. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in USA and Singapore, and a world-wide sales and support network.

 

 

Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A Special Issue on Atomic Layer Deposition for AVS ALD 2014

AVS-ALD 2014 in Kyoto har reported that Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A is soliciting research articles for publication in a Special January/February 2015 Issue on Atomic Layer Deposition.

 

This special issue is planned in collaboration with the 14th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD 2014) to be held in Kyoto, Japan during June 15-18, 2014. The Special Issue will be dedicated to the science and technology of atomic layer controlled deposition of thin films. While a significant fraction of the articles are expected to be based on material presented at ALD 2014, research articles that are on ALD but were not presented at this conference are also welcome: the special issue will be open to all articles on the science and technology of ALD.

Check te conference program for more information here.

 

Invited Speakers (Confirmed)

Prof. Jiyoung Kim, Univ. Texas at Dallas, USA, “Ozone Based ALD”
Dr. Scott Clendenning, Intel, USA, “New chemical routes into ALD materials and their applications”
Dr. Toshihide Nabatame, NIMS, Japan, “Characterization of several Higher-k films fabricated by Th- and PE-ALD process”
Prof. Yongfeng Mei, Fudan Univ., China, “Atomic layer deposition as a new tool for interdisciplinary research”

Webinar Taking Nano to the next level. Speakers from LBNL and Seagate!

Webinar "Taking Nano to the next level" on 26th March 2014 Presented by keynote industry speakers. Hosted by the IOP on Wed 26th March at 5pm (GMT), 9am Pacific Time.

 

This webinar is free of charge, and will run for 1 hour including time for questions and answers at the end. A focus on recent nanoscale etch and atomic layer deposition (ALD) advances from research to
manufacturing applications, from industry leading speakers: 

Talk 1: ALD and nanoscale etch processing techniques and results from recent work carried out at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), USA

Speaker: Deirdre Olynick, Staff Scientist, LBNL, CA, USA

Talk 2: Data storage, an expanding market application that has benefited from advanced ALD and nanoscale etch techniques

Speaker: Kim Lee, Seagate, CA, USA

Worldwide Smart Coatings Markets forecast 2013-2020

A new report on how "Smart Coatings" will evolve the years to come. No mentioning of ALD in the Index, but it must be in there and rest assured that ALD will expand in many of these Smart Coating technologie. Many times not as stand alone but in a combo with CVD and PVD. I think that the recent years strong focus on especially PEALD and Spatial ALD Technologies paves the way. Thanks Wendy at Colnatec for sharing this one!

 

Worldwide Smart Coatings Markets: 2013-2020

 

 

 

Summary of the report:       

Smart coatings change in response to external stimuli and are finding a fast growing number of applications in several industries including construction, automotive, medical, consumer electronic goods and the military.  NanoMarkets believes that these materials present a strong business case because of their unique functionality and their ability to be highly customized.  We think smart coatings will do especially well in medical, military and other applications, where quality and performance, rather than price, shape purchasing decisions.  Consumer markets where the customer is willing to pay a premium for functionality such as scratch resistance or enhanced energy efficiency will also be important.

 

NanoMarkets commenced coverage of smart coatings in 2011.  As such it has a solid understanding of the dynamics of the smart coatings business and it brings this experience to this report.  The report covers all the major markets for smart coatings including energy, automotive, medical, electronics, textiles and military.   And it includes an assessment of the product/marketing strategies of key firms supplying smart coatings, as well as eight-year forecasts by applications sector and by type of coating.  These forecasts are both in volume and in value terms.

 

This report also assesses the latest technical developments in the smart coatings space; smart coatings are becoming smarter and more biological, for example Based on the latest R&D and university research, we also examines future directions for smart coatings including important developments in manufacturing.  We believe that this report will provide guidance to coatings and other specialty chemical firms, as well as firms making production equipment, and others planning to make investments of all kinds in smart materials.

 

 

 

The Hafnium FET - Your kids will love this video!

Dad, what do you do at work? The answer is finally here - The Hafnium FET - Your kids will love this video!
 

 

 

Interview with Beneq's technical sales director ALD-based OLED encapsulation technology

Interview with Beneq's technical sales director ALD-based OLED encapsulation technology:

"- ALD is the only truly conformal and pinhole-free thin-film encapsulation technology. Due to the pinhole-free nature of ALD films, ultra-thin layers (i.e. 10’s of nm's) of inorganic material (e.g. Al2O3) is sufficient for OLED encapsulation. Ultra-thin layers are also compatible with future needs for flexibility. Conformality is advantageous e.g. in elimination of side-diffusion, the OLED device can extend to the very edge of the device and still be reliably encapsulated. Finally, the ALD material costs are very low, and overall cost-of-ownership is very competitive.

- ALD is uniquely well suited for flexible OLEDs, due to the ultra-thin layers which are compatible with the future flexibility requirements. I would go as far as to say that ALD will enable future flexible OLED products."

- Beneq's director of Technical sales, Mikko Söderlund
 

Complete Interview with some interesting insights into the ALD OLED business and also comments with respect to Synos/Veeco Fast-ALD(TM) technology.

http://www.oled-info.com/beneqs-technical-sales-director-explains-companys-ald-based-oled-encapsulation-technology

 

 

For more information on all kind of OLED Technology this site has a lot to offer on flexible OLED and all othe topics as well: http://news.oled-display.net

 

The film stack building up an OLED on a flexible substrate such as flexibel glass, plastic or a metal foil (schematic above from OLED-Display.net).

 

According to Erich Strasser at OLED-Display.net there are the development and market entry stages:

• very thin > 0.25mm, light, unbreakable
• Bendable, ready for production (Galaxy Round, LG-Flex)
• Rollable, completely flexible –> ready 2016
• Printable, displays like a paper –> ready 2018-2020

MEMS and NEMS Processing Advances one day workshop presented by Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology and IEMN

MEMS and NEMS Processing Advances one day workshop presented by Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology and IEMN.

 

This workshop is open to all those people working in industry and academia, with an interest in recent progress in research and development, plus future trends in the fabrication and application of micro & nano structures and devices.

 

 

 

An interactive, one day technical seminar focused on practical applications, techniques and advances.

This technical workshop is being hosted in conjunction with the Institute of Electronics Micro-electronics and Nanotechnology (IEMN) in Lille. It is a one day event aimed at all those scientists working in research and manufacturing with an interest in MEMS and NEMS, and is designed to keep participants abreast of the latest technologies and trends in these hot industry research topics.

Talks will include topics such as:

• MEMS – how to make the nanoworld smaller
• Nanoscale etch
• MEMS research applications and results - IEMN
• Looking towards the next generation of MEMS devices – a leading research organisation
• ALD for MEMS – Eindhoven University
• ALD research and results – Guest speaker

More information can be found here.

 

The workshop is free of charge however advance booking is essential. Register your place here.

Beneq-Glaston TFC2000™ for continuous production of TCO-glass

The Beneq-Glaston TFC2000™ is an off-line system designed for continuous production of TCO-coated glass for the solar industry. It represents a unique and seamless combination of the world-leading glass and annealing know-how of Glaston and Beneq nAERO® thin film TCO-coating.

 

Cost efficiency

• high deposition efficiency – higher coating growth rate than competing technology
• precursor yield 20% or better – save on materials
• fast and easy entry to TCO solar glass

High quality

• durable pyrolytic hard coating – high resistance against wear and tear
• adjustable level of haze – enables TCO-coatings for different types of solar cells

 

 

 

The TFC2000 is designed for continuous production of TCO-coated glass for the solar industry. It represents a unique and seamless combination of the world-leading glass and annealing know-how of Glaston and Beneq nAERO^® thin film TCO-coating.