CMC Conference Call for Papers, April 25-26, 2019 in Saratoga Springs, NY, USA

The Critical Materials Council (CMC) Conference Committee has issued a call for presentations for the 4th annual public CMC Conference to be held April 25-26, 2019 in Saratoga Springs, NY, USA, following the private CMC face-to-face meetings (April 23-24). The theme of this year’s conference is:

“Materials for Advancing Processes & Technologies”

Keynote: DR. JOHN PELLERIN, Deputy CTO & VP of Worldwide R&D, GlobalFoundries

Three sessions will cover:

I. Global supply-chain issues of economics and regulations,

II. Immediate challenges of materials & manufacturing, and

III. Emerging materials in R&D and pilot fabrication.

 

To encourage the free exchange of the most current pre-competitive information the CMC Conference only requires that speakers submit an abstract for review, and if accepted, presentation slides. No formal paper is required. To submit a 25 min. presentation for consideration, please send a 1-page abstract by January 15, 2019 to cmcinfo@techcet.com.

Attendees will include industry experts handling supply-chains, business-development, R&D, and product management, as well as academics and analysts. CMC member companies will be attending this meeting, as it is an important part of their membership.

On behalf of the CMC Conference Committee,

Jonas Sundqvist, Ph.D., Karey Holland, Ph.D. and Ed Korczynski

Picosun Group reports significant increase in turnover and profitability

 

ESPOO, Finland, 23rd November 2018 – Picosun Group, a leading provider of advanced ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating technology for global industries, reports 37 % rise in turnover to 25.96 million euros during its previous fiscal year, which ended 30th September 2018. 

 

At the same time, the company increased its profitability. EBIT grew to 1.42 million euros which equals 5.5 % of turnover, and EBITDA to 2.39 million euros which is 9.2 % of turnover. The numbers are still unconfirmed.

Picosun’s personnel grew one third to 86 people. Almost 25 % of the personnel have either Ph.D. or D.Sc. degree.

”We are very pleased with the numbers of the previous fiscal year. What also makes us happy is the fact that we were able to increase important investments that support development of our company. Agility and unmatched ALD expertise are our core strengths which we will never compromise,” says Mr. Kustaa Poutiainen, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Picosun Group.

Last year, Picosun invested 4.4 million euros to research and development. This is 17 % of the company’s turnover.

For the ongoing fiscal year Picosun has budgeted 33.3 million euros turnover, which means 28 % growth. The company is also expecting further improvement in profitability, and it is planning to increase its R&D investments to 5.7 million euros.

Picosun’s personnel is expected to grow at the same rate as during the previous fiscal year. Healthcare business will be one of the key factors to boost Picosun’s growth.

”Our PicoMEDICAL™ solutions, specifically targeted to the healthcare industries, have raised a lot of interest amongst our customers. ALD will revolutionize advanced health technologies, just like it did to microelectronics industries more than ten years ago. As the leading AGILE ALD™ solutions provider, we are the pioneers in this field,” continues Poutiainen.

The company has strengthened its global Service and Support operations by hiring lots of new personnel, and by establishing a specific Customer Experience unit. Also Picosun’s China operations have undergone restructuring, and they shall be significantly reinforced during the ongoing fiscal year.

Picosun provides the most advanced ALD thin film coating technology to enable the industrial leap into the future, with turn-key production solutions and unmatched expertise in the field. Today, PICOSUN™ ALD equipment are in daily manufacturing use in numerous major industries around the world. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in Europe, North America, Singapore, Taiwan, China, and Japan, and a world-wide sales and support network. Visit www.picosun.com.

UMass Engineers Make Crossbar Arrays of the Smallest Memristors

[University of Massachusetts Amherst LINK] AMHERST, Mass. – A research team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst says it has developed a promising building block for the next generation of nonvolatile random-access memory, artificial neural networks and bio-inspired computing systems.

• "Memristor crossbar arrays with 6-nm half-pitch and 2-nm critical dimension" Nature Nanotechnology (2018) (LINK) 
• Supplemenary information - including details on ALD processing (Al2O3 and HfO2) as well as all other processes (LINK)

 

2-nm memristor crossbar array [University of Massachusetts Amherst]

The team, led by Qiangfei Xia of the electrical and computer engineering department, says the memristor crossbar arrays they have built are, “to the best of our knowledge, the first high-density electronic circuits with individually addressable components scaled down to 2 nanometers dimension built with foundry-compatible fabrication technologies.” The results appear in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“This work will lead to high-density memristor arrays with low power consumption for both memory and unconventional computing applications,” says Xia. “The working circuits have been made with technologies that are widely used to build a computer chip.”

Understanding the scale of this work is important, Xia says. One nanometer (nm) is one billionth of a meter. The diameter of a human hair is about 100 micrometers, or 100,000 nanometers. Two nanometers are just a few atoms wide. A crossbar is a matrix of tiny switches.

In the Nature Nanotechnology paper, Xia’s research team explains that organizing small memristors into high-density crossbar arrays is critical to meet the ever-growing demands in high-capacity and low-energy consumption, but is challenging because of difficulties in making highly ordered and highly conductive nanoelectrode arrays. The team has addressed this challenge by developing “nanofins,” metallic nanostructures with very high height-to-width ratio and hence vastly reduced resistance, as the electrodes.

This research is an outgrowth of Xia’s 2013, five-year, $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program to develop emerging nanoelectronic devices. Xia’s NSF research has been addressing the biggest obstacle for the continued operation of Moore’s Law, which states that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years.

“It (Moore’s Law) worked perfectly for more than 40 years, but now we’re reaching its fundamental limit, due to the quantum effects related to electron flow,” says Xia. “So, we absolutely need new devices that can do a better job.” In addition to Xia, the other authors of the Nature Nanotechnology paper are Shuang Pi, Can Li, Hao Jiang, Weiwei Xia, Joshua Yang and Huolin Xin

The ultimate barrier - ALD barriers by Beneq

[Beneq] With ALD, it is possible to create moisture barriers that are thinner and keep humidity and vapors out better than other hermetic packaging options, which makes it a winning moisture barrier for many industries, especially the semiconductor industry. ALD moisture protection can be applied in different phases of the production process: wafer-level, chip-level, package-level, and/or during the final assembly of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB).

Read more in the Beneq Blog : LINK
Download white paper : LINK

(beneq.com)

Forge Nano launch Prometheus series reactor for particle ALD R&D

Forge Nano has just recently launched a new ALD Particle reactor for R&D including a vast range of goodies:

• 8 precursor lines (gas, liquid, and solid precursor)
• multiple fluidization aids
• vibrating fluidized bed reactor
• high shear jet assist the negation of powder aggregation and improve mixing in the reactor
• mass spectrometer (MKS shown in picture)
• hardware and software for control and in situ analysis of ALD coating in real-time
• and more

[From Forge Nano] Prometheus brought fire from the Gods to the masses. Forge Nano’s Prometheus R&D tool brings the power of particle ALD to the masses of corporate, academic, and national laboratory researchers interested in pushing the boundaries of high-performance materials through surface engineering. The Prometheus Series represents a significant step forward for R&D into the application of sub-nano to nanoscale coatings on powder volumes from milligram to kilogram samples.

Screen dump from Forge Nano (LINK)

The Prometheus Series was designed to help researchers accelerate their understanding of the coating design space between existing and novel precursors and various substrate materials. These systems accommodate up to 8 precursors, including basic delivery and low vapor pressure delivery draw systems to handle gas, liquid, and solid precursor recipes with consummate ease. Independently-heated zones throughout the system ensure optimal operating conditions for precursors and sensitive substrates.

This novel ALD R&D tool comes complete with multiple fluidization aids to ensure particles are adequately fluidized for uniform coatings. The vibrating fluidized bed reactor and high shear jet assist the negation of powder aggregation and improve mixing in the reactor. Highly controlled dosing is supported with high degrees of automation and automated process monitoring. The system is equipped with emergency stop logic to enable the ALD system to run continuously, safely, and autonomously. The user interface is also is intuitive and is easy to use for easy adoption. The Prometheus Series is the world’s most flexible ALD R&D tool, and it was engineered with the researcher in mind. It provides the most advanced hardware and software for control and in situ analysis of ALD coating in real-time.

More infromatione : LINK

Isotropic Atomic Layer Etching of ZnO Using Acetylacetone and O2 Plasma

Plasma atomic layer etching (ALE) is typically know as an anisotropic etch method (directional), which is very useful property in many cases but sometimes not good at all, e.g, when you want to conformally (sorry for the reverse ALD expression) etch an high aspect ratio feature like a deep hole or a pillar.

Here is a fresh publication from TU Eindhoven and TNO/Holst Center in the Netherlands on their recent development of a Plasma ALE process capable of isotropical etch, i.e, conformal etching, of very high aspect ratio ZnO nanowires. Its is Open Access so go ahead and download it for free.

Fred, heel erg bedankt voor het delen van deze!

Isotropic Atomic Layer Etching of ZnO Using Acetylacetone and O2 Plasma

A. Mameli, M. A. Verheijen, A. J. M. Mackus, W. M. M. Kessels, and F. Roozeboom

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2018, 10 (44), pp 38588–38595

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b12767

 

 

Atomic layer etching (ALE) provides Ångström-level control over material removal and holds potential for addressing the challenges in nanomanufacturing faced by conventional etching techniques. Recent research has led to the development of two main classes of ALE: ion-driven plasma processes yielding anisotropic (or directional) etch profiles and thermally driven processes for isotropic material removal. In this work, we extend the possibilities to obtain isotropic etching by introducing a plasma-based ALE process for ZnO which is radical-driven and utilizes acetylacetone (Hacac) and O2 plasma as reactants. In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements indicate self-limiting half-reactions with etch rates ranging from 0.5 to 1.3 Å/cycle at temperatures between 100 and 250 °C. The ALE process was demonstrated on planar and three-dimensional substrates consisting of a regular array of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) conformally covered using atomic layer deposition of ZnO. Transmission electron microscopy studies conducted on the ZnO-covered NWs before and after ALE proved the isotropic nature and the damage-free characteristics of the process. In situ infrared spectroscopy measurements were used to elucidate the self-limiting nature of the ALE half-reactions and the reaction mechanism. During the Hacac etching reaction that is assumed to produce Zn(acac)2, carbonaceous species adsorbed on the ZnO surface are suggested as the cause of the self-limiting behavior. The subsequent O2 plasma step resets the surface for the next ALE cycle. High etch selectivities (∼80:1) over SiO2 and HfO2 were demonstrated. Preliminary results indicate that the etching process can be extended to other oxides such as Al2O3.

15 nm resolved patterns in Selective Area Atomic Layer Deposition

Here is an impressive and fundamental paper on selective area atomic layer deposition (SA-ALD)or just area selective deposition (ASD) that some prefer to call it.

The researchers at IBM has devleoped a bottom up approach on 300 mm pattern wafers that had been fabricated using standard trench first metal hardmask damascene scheme to create a line pattern of 36 nm pitch with single EUV exposures using low-k OMCTS 2.7 as the dielectric.

 

By deactivating ond surface with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs, Octadecylphosphonic acid) leaving another surface active for ALD processing (ZnO) they were able to produce 15 nm resolved patterns. One of the biggest challenges in the implementation of SA-ALD is the ability to maintain pattern fidelity and reduce defects during the ALD process (ZnO). 

 

Thank you Henrik Pedersen for sharing this paper!

 

Deactivating material is used to block one surface from ALD film growth. (A) ALD eventually leads to overgrowth of the film onto deactivated areas. (B) Defects in the deactivation layer can lead to the formation of locally deposited material. Published with permission from ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2018, 10 (44), pp 38630–38637 Copyright 2018 American Chemical Society.

Fifteen Nanometer Resolved Patterns in Selective Area Atomic Layer Deposition—Defectivity Reduction by Monolayer Design

Rudy Wojtecki, Magi Mettry, Noah F. Fine Nathel, Alexander Friz, Anuja De Silva, Noel Arellano, and Hosadurga Shobha
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2018, 10 (44), pp 38630–38637
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b13896

The new episode about ALDep is out - Area selective ALD with Gregory Parsons

The new episode about #ALDep is out! This time we are discussing Area selective ALD with Gregory Parsons from @parsonsthinfilm.
As usual it will help if you share this around ;)https://t.co/QAZhWRuvk7#podcasts #technology

— STG podcast (@STG_podcast) November 16, 2018

Researchers from University of Groningen, the Netherlands confirm ferroelectricity in nanosized HfO2 crystals

Since the finding of ferroelectricity in HfO2 films of sub 10 nm thickness by Tim Böscke*,  (US8304823B2 NaMLab gGmbH) more then 10 years ago many leading R&D teams and semiconductor companies has confirmed the findings. Now also ferroelectricity in nanosized HfO2 crystalsby has been confirmed by the "Hafnia team” within the Nanostructures of Functional Oxides group, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen (UG), the Netherlands (LINK). 

* then at the DRAM Company Qimonda

Figure shows inside view of vacuum chamber in which the process of 'pulsed laser deposition' takes place, used to create the hafnium oxide crystals in this study. On the left the glowing substrate on which the film is growing with atomic control; in the center the blue plasma of ions that is created by shooting a laser on a target with the right chemical composition (target visible on the right side of the figure). | Photo Henk Bonder, University of Groningen

Ferroelectric materials have a spontaneous dipole moment which can point up or down. This means that they can be used to store information, just like magnetic bits on a hard disk. The advantage of ferroelectric bits is that they can be written at a low voltage and power. Magnetic bits require large currents to create a magnetic field for switching, and thus more power. However, according to the scientific community, the aligned dipoles in ferroelectric materials are only stable in fairly large groups; thus, shrinking the crystals results into the loss of dipole moment obstructing ferroelectricity based storage devices.

Nevertheless, eight years ago, the first publication by ex-Qimonda experts and researchers from Fraunhofer and RWTH Aachen (Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 102903 (2011); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3634052) announced that hafnium oxide thin films were ferroelectric when thinner than ten nanometres and that thicker films actually lost their ferroelectric properties. This triggered many groups across the globe to dig deeper and confirm the claim of researchers from NamLab. Noheda and her group at University of Groningen was also one of them. Since the ferroelectric hafnium oxide samples used in the study carried out at NaMLab were polycrystalline and showed multiple phases, obscuring any clear fundamental understanding of such an unconventional phenomenon, Noheda and her group decided to study these crystals by growing clean (single-phase) films on a substrate.

Using X-ray scattering and high-resolution electron microscopy techniques, the group observed that very thin films (under ten nanometres) grow in an entirely unexpected and previously unknown polar structure, which is necessary for ferroelectricity. Combining these observations with meticulous transport measurements, they confirmed that the material was indeed ferroelectric. Surprisingly, they noticed that the crystal structure changed when the layers exceeded 10 nm, thus reaching the same conclusion as of the Namlab.

In the substrate that UG researchers used, the atoms were a little bit closer than those in hafnium oxide which strained hafnium oxide crystals a little. Moreover, at a very small size, particles have a very large surface energy, creating pressures of up to 5 GPa in the crystal. This altogether forces a different crystal arrangement and in turn polar phase in the HfO2 film.

One contradicting finding of the UG researchers is that the HfO2 crystals do not need a ‘wake-up’ cycle to become ferroelectric. The thin films investigated at NamLab turned ferroelectric only after going through a number of switching cycles (wake-up cycles) needed to align the dipoles in “uncleaned” samples grown via other techniques. In case of the pulsed laser deposition setup and the substrate used at UG, the alignment is already present in the crystals.

Meanwhile, NaMLab has explored ferroelectric properties in atomic layer deposition (ALD) based thin-films of doped HfO2, and has achieved revolutionary results (LINK). A variety of dopant materials (Si, Al, Ge, Y, Gd, La and Sr) with a crystal radius ranging from 50 to 130 pm has been studied in addition to a mixed Hf1-xZrxO2. The aim is to develop a memory concept with the HfO2 based ferroelectric transistors (FeFET) as building blocks. The FeFET is a long-term contender for an ultra-fast, low-power and non-volatile memory technology. In these devices the information is stored as a polarization state of the gate dielectric and can be read non-destructively as a shift of the threshold voltage. The advantage of a FeFET memory compared to the Flash memory is its faster access times and much lower power consumption at high data rates. In the framework of a project together with GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Fraunhofer IPMS, which was funded by the Free State of Saxony, a one-transistor (1T) FeFET eNVM was successfully implemented at NaMLab in a 28 nm gate-first super low power (28SLP) CMOS technology platform using only two additional structural masks (LINK). The electrical baseline properties remain the same for the FeFET integration, demonstrating the feasibility of FeFET as low-cost eNVM.

Guest Blog by: Abhishekkumar Thakur, Fraunhofer IKTS / TU Dresden
Location: Dresden, Germany

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/abhishekkumar-thakur-16081991