SoLayTec receives new ALD tool orders from PV solar cell manufacturers

SoLayTec today announced the continuing positive trend of incoming orders. Four new solar customers around the globe have ordered the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment from SoLayTec. One of these customer is from Taiwan, and a mayor a step to open further opportunities for SoLayTec in this market. These shipments are scheduled to start within this quarter.

Depending on the capacity levels that are needed SoLayTec offers three types of InPassion ALD. Main difference is the number of deposition units modules added in such a system. The basic three products offered are 4, 6 or 8 deposition units, that respectively result into 2,500* wph, 3,600* wph or 4,800* wph. (www.solaytec.com)

Depending on the capacity levels that are needed SoLayTec offers two types of InPassion ALD. Main difference is the number of deposition units modules added in such a system. The basic two products offered are 4, 6 or 8 deposition units, that respectively result into 2,500* wph, 3,600* wph or 4,800* wph. - See more at: http://www.solaytec.com/products/inpassion-ald#sthash.y20MGE3A.dpuf

“After several years of having InPassion ALD systems in mass production at multiple customers in China and Japan, SoLayTec is delighted to announce that in the last couple of weeks 3 orders were received”, according Roger Görtzen, co-founder of SoLayTec and manager marketing and sales.

 
Field Replaceable Unit (optional FRU) - If one of the deposition units is not working properly and can’t be fixed by the customer or SoLayTec service team, this module or FRU will be replaced by another FRU. In this way the tool will be running as fast as possible at 100% capacity again. In parallel this FRU will be send to a SoLayTec service station to be refurbished.  (www.solaytec.com)

“These machines will be used for production of high efficient solar cell concepts, like p-type PERC, n-type IBC and bi-facial cells. In the past SoLayTec announced that spatial ALD results in a higher efficiency of about 0,2% for multi and mono PERC cells compared to PECVD AlOx. At one leading PV solar cell manufacturer we have measured for ALD Al2O3 a surface recombination velocity between 1- 5cm/sec compared to ≥ 30cm/sec on similar material for PECVD AlOx . This data confirms that the passivation quality of ALD Al2O3 is factor ≥ 6 higher compared to PECVD AlOx. Recently, the c-Si wafer quality has been improved, and this results into better bulk material of the c-Si material. Consequently our customers request an excellent surface passivation which can be provided by ALD Al2O3 for their future cell concepts.” according Roger Görtzen. 

“So far, our customers were located in China, Japan and Europe so we are very happy with our newest market entrance in Taiwan. Now we have finally achieved this important milestone and of course SoLayTec will focus on further expansion of its footprint in this country.” said Roger Görtzen.

SoLayTec

SoLayTec is a spin-off company of the Dutch research organisation TNO and established in 2010. SoLayTec is part of the Amtech Group (Nasdaq ASYS). The company develops, delivers and services machines for atomic layer deposition (ALD) on solar cells worldwide. The SoLayTec ALD machines are designed for mass production in the solar market. In the field of solar cell ALD equipment, SoLayTec has a leading position.

For more information, please visit www.solaytec.com.

Precursor saving ALD Method from University of Alberta

Here is a clever paper from University of Alberta on how to save expensive ALD precursor in ALD processing by using a burst of  shorter multiple precursor pulses. I´ve seen this approached used in 3D conformal growth in extreme high aspect ratio structures before, but I just had a simple picture in my mind how it works. Here it is explained an proven by experimental work in great detail! 

The approach is also in one sense similar to the Genus process that ran the ALD pulses in undersaturation and was very much faster and precursor saving than "normal ALD". However not that good in extreme aspect ratio structures. The method developed by Triratna Muneshwar should not have this restriction since it works in saturation mode.

University of Alberta materials engineering postdoctoral fellow Triratna Muneshwar and materials engineering professor Ken Cadien have developed a new method for ALD that saves expensive precursors. The paper in Journal of Applied Physics is highlighted here in EurekAlert. On the picture the gentlemen stands in front of a ALD machine from Kurt J. Lesker, which I assume has been used for the experimental verification of the numerical method.

AxBAxB… pulsed atomic layer deposition: Numerical growth model and experiments

Triratna Muneshwar and Ken Caddie

J. Appl. Phys. 119, 085306 (2016); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4942439

Atomic layer deposition(ALD) is widely used for the fabrication of advanced semiconductor devices and related nanoscale structures. During ALD, large precursor doses (>1000 L per pulse) are often required to achieve surface saturation, of which only a small fraction is utilized in film growth while the rest is pumped from the system. Since the metal precursor constitutes a significant cost of ALD, strategies to enhance precursor utilization are essential for the scaling of ALD processes. In the precursor reaction step, precursor physisorption is restricted by steric hindrance (mA1) from ligands on the precursor molecules. On reaction,some of these ligands are removed as by-products resulting in chemisorbed species with reduced steric hindrance (mA1 → mA2, where mA2 < mA1) and some of the initially hindered surface reaction sites becoming accessible for further precursor physisorption. To utilize these additional reaction sites, we propose a generalized AxBAxB… pulsed deposition where the total precursor dose (ΦA) is introduced as multiple x (x > 1, x ∈ I) short-pulses rather than a single pulse. A numerical first-order surface reactionkinetics growthmodel is presented and applied to study the effect of AxBAxB… pulsed ALD on the growthper cycle (GPC). The model calculations predict higher GPC for AxBAxB… pulsing than with ABAB… deposition. In agreement with the model predictions, with AxBAxB… pulsed deposition, the GPC was found to increase by ∼46% for ZrN plasma enhanced ALD (PEALD), ∼49% for HfO2 PEALD, and ∼8% for thermal Al2O3ALD with respect to conventional ABAB… pulsed growth.

Picosun’s ALD solutions at Imec transform battery technology

ESPOO, Finland, 30th March, 2016 – Picosun Oy, the leading supplier of advanced ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating technology, now provides ALD equipment to transform battery manufacturing. 

 

Previous news here on the ALD Blog : Picosun teams up with IMEC to realize next generation’s battery technology with ALD
 

The sustainable energy economy of the future, greener transportation, and the increasing number of portable, mobile and personal electronic devices all require improved means for local energy storage. Nanostructured, solid-state thin film batteries offer a disruptive solution for this. Replacing traditionally used liquid materials in the battery with all solid layers improves the battery safety and lifetime. Thin and flat geometry makes the batteries easily integrated in e.g. wearable electronics, whereas their nanoscale tailored internal structure enables high energy storage capacity.

ALD is an ideal way to prepare the highly conformal, dense, uniform, and structurally and chemically exactly controlled functional layers in the core of the battery stack. Using PICOSUN™ ALD equipment, imec, Belgium, has now developed a solution to deposit a novel, solid electrolyte for lithium ion thin film batteries.

“Our aim at Picosun is to utilize ALD technology for better tomorrow. For example, faster and smoother data handling and communications, and the increasing number of mobile, wearable personal health monitoring devices require compact, efficient, and reliable power delivery solutions. The ALD technology we have now developed with imec for manufacturing of safe and long-lasting thin film batteries is an important breakthrough into a huge market area still relatively new to ALD. We are happy to provide the latest manufacturing solutions to our customers in this field and to see their most advanced products powering our everyday electronics,” states Juhana Kostamo, Managing Director of Picosun.

Atomic/Molecular Layer Deposition of Lithium Terephthalate for Li-Ion Battery Anodes

EurekAlert.org reports: When microbatteries are manufatured, the key challenge is to make them able to store large amounts of energy in a small space. One way to improve the energy density is to manufacure the batteries based on three-dimensional microstructured architectures. This may increase the effective surface inside a battery- even dozens of times. However, the production of materials fit for these has proven to be very difficult.

Aalto University Researchers testing the material on coin cells. (Mikko Raskinen / Aalto University)

Researches at Aalto University, Helsinki Finland, has develooped a ALD/MLD deposition process for Li-terephthalate, which has been published in Nanoo Letters (below).

- ALD is a great method for making battery materials fit for 3D microstructured architectures. Our method shows it is possible to even produce organic electrode materials by using ALD, which increases the opportunities to manufacture efficient microbatteries, says doctoral candidate Mikko Nisula from Aalto University. (EurekAlert.org)

Atomic/Molecular Layer Deposition of Lithium Terephthalate Thin Films as High Rate Capability Li-Ion Battery Anodes

Nano Lett., 2016, 16 (2), pp 1276–1281

DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b04604

We demonstrate the fabrication of high-quality electrochemically active organic lithium electrode thin films by the currently strongly emerging combined atomic/molecular layer deposition (ALD/MLD) technique using lithium terephthalate, a recently found anode material for lithium-ion battery (LIB), as a proof-of-the-concept material. Our deposition process for Li-terephthalate is shown to well comply with the basic principles of ALD-type growth including the sequential self-saturated surface reactions, a necessity when aiming at micro-LIB devices with three-dimensional architectures. The as-deposited films are found crystalline across the deposition temperature range of 200–280 °C, which is a trait highly desired for an electrode material but rather unusual for hybrid inorganic–organic thin films. Excellent rate capability is ascertained for the Li-terephthalate films with no conductive additives required. The electrode performance can be further enhanced by depositing a thin protective LiPON solid-state electrolyte layer on top of Li-terephthalate; this yields highly stable structures with capacity retention of over 97% after 200 charge/discharge cycles at 3.2 C.

NCD, a fast growing Korean ALD Equipment manufacturer for High Volume manufactuiring

As announced some weeks ago I am happy to have NCD as sponsor for the BALD Engineering ALD News blog. Here a review of the company and its fantastic ALD products follows and you should check the recently updated web page (http://www.ncdtech.co.kr/). NCD Co., Ltd. from Daejeon in Korea is a young and growing company founded in 2010 and is specialized in ALD original equipment manufacturing, which has been covered here on the ALD blog previously (here).

NCD is focusing on equipment development, process development, coating services, and process consulting for advanced ALD technologies for four business areas:

1. Solar
2. Display
3. Semiconductor
4. R&D

NCD has already had quite some successful years in entering the ALD equipment market and has built a very impressive customer base in Asia with main focus on the Korean domestic market, Japan, China and Taiwan.

As you may know, one of disadvantages of ALD is slow growth rate at typically an Å / cycle or so, that is to say ALD has a low throughput. In order to solve this problem, NCD has applied for patents for the high-throughput, high-volume and large-area every year. Based on these patents, NCD have developed their high-volume and large-area ALD system.

Here follows an overview of the ALD technology and equipment offering by NCD

1) High-volume ALD

   - GS ALD : surface passivation for c-Si solar cell                                                                         

   - MC ALD : dielectric for capacitor and encapsulation for micro display (OLED)

2) Large-area ALD

   - TS ALD : buffer layer for CIGS solar cell

   - GD ALD : encapsulation for OLED

Lucida^TM GS1200 ALD with automation system

NCD has paved the way for high volume manufacturing by a range of ALD systems (see above). Worth highlighting here is especially the Lucida™ GS1200 ALD system applied for high efficiency solar cells at both Hyundai Heavy Industries and LG Electronics etc. The GS series from NCD can realize Passivation for c-Si solar cell at an impressive through put of >3400 wph @ 10nm-Al2O3.

For the large area CIGS thin film soar and OLED display market, NCD has developed two main platforms - the TS and the GD series respectively. ALD chamber clustering is an approach used by many rather than large stand-alone batch tools. 

Lucida^TM GD600 ALD in R&D Lab.

Lucida™ GD series already had been applied to R&D centers of Korean and other customers, and showed the excellent performance for thin film encapsulation (TFE) and barrier applications. NCD is currently possible to run customer demoes with the large size of panel (1500mm x 1800) for using LucidaTM GD600 in the demo room (see above). NCD is the only place to do superior ALD demoes with that size panel.

It will be very exciting to follow NCD the next years when the ALD market continues its growth in many high-volume and large-area ALD applications.

UHV PEALD system from AdNaNoTek

Here is a company for ALD that I was not aware of before that I came across while surfing internet. AdNaNoTek's is building all types of UHV Deposition Systems for MBE, PLD, IBSD, Sputtering, E-beam Evaporatioon, Thermal Evaporatioon, etc. and are now also offering a PEALD system.  Below is some information available from their web: LINK

Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PEALD - 6)

AdNaNoTek's Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PEALD - 6) can deposit epitaxial thin-film with extremely high quality and repeatability. This PEALD system is specially equipped with microwave plasma generator which produces plasma from successive ionization, vibrational excitation, and collision. Sufficient precursor units are provided to introduce deposition materials unto the substrate using a sophisticated gas control panel. The deposition chamber and substrate manipulator provides precise control of vacuum condition and substrate temperature to ensure epitaxial deposition process.

In addition, precise control and high stability is achieved by making the process automated with the use of the FBBEAR control software. The FBBEAR control software, provides complete data logging, precise parameter tuning  which allows user to have easy operation and reliable experimental repeatability.

PEALD can be applied for thin layer deposition of materials like: Silicon, Silicon oxide, etc.

MAIN SPECIFICATIONS (under construction):

• Cylindrical SS316L electropolised chamber (1E-10 Torr)
• 8-inch quick access door
• 4-axis (XYZR) Laser heating sample manipulator (20 mm xy motion, 100mm z motion, continuous 360° rotation)
• 1-inch sample holder (size upto 6-in)
• Heating temperature up to 1000°C ± 1°C (in 1 atm O2 or O3 process gas)
• High pressure RHEED system (real-time epitaxy monitoring)
• Turbo pump with rough pump
• Metal leak valves
• Full range vacuum gauge
• Industrial computer with 23" touchscreen
• Full system control software (FBBear)
• Large space with many ports for versatile expansion/upgrades
• HV Load lock SS304 electropolished chamber (1E-7 Torr) with full range vacuum gauge and turbo pump

New cyclic azasilanes as volatile and reactive precursors for ALD of SiO2 from Gelest

Here is a very good publication brought to my attention by Henrik Pedersen on Twitter. It is a nice screening exercise of a new class Si precursors for ALD of SiO2 using ozone fom Gelest Inc. SiO2 is one of the most important materials today in the 2nd ALD boom besides silicon nitride. 

As reported earlier here the equipment market for ALD single and multi wafer tools is expected to reach $1.2 billion in the next 2-3 years. One of the reasons behind tremendous growth expectation  is that LPCVD and PECVD just can´t meet the requirements of conformal growth and low thermal budget required by the sub 20 nm Logic and Memory technologies and especially for multi-patterning and also due to the 3D path of 3DNAND. One additional challenge that has to be confronted is to have a stable process that is not affected by surface loading difference due to different chip designs - just imagine the issues with having one specific CVD recipe for each specific litho layer in each specific product in a foundry like TSMC or Globalfoundries.

Here is an excellent publication from Dina Triyoso at Globalfoundries explaining loading effects in the 28nm spacer module PECVD vs ALD SiNx that is free at Research Gate.

The excellent work is form Nicholas Strandwitz research group at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, USA and has been performed using a the well known workhorse in ALD - the Ultratech/Cambridge Nanotech Savannah S100. This one seems also to be a nice version with a Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) integrated in the lid from Ultratech.

Cyclic azasilanes as volatile and reactive precursors for atomic layer deposition of silicon dioxide

Ling Ju and Nicholas C. Strandwitz 

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2016, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C5TC03896K

A suite of four volatile aminosilanes, cyclic azasilanes, was used to deposit silicon dioxide (SiO2) films by atomic layer deposition (ALD) over the temperature range 100–300 °C by reaction with O3. The unstable Si–N bonding makes the cyclic azasilanes chemically reactive with hydroxyl surfaces through a ring-opening reaction. Subsequent oxidation with O3 affords silanol groups, which are amenable to further reaction with cyclic azasilanes. The influence of azasilane and O3 exposure times on the growth rate was examined in detail. The growth rates obtained by spectroscopic ellipsometry are 0.6–1.2 Å per cycle for various azasilanes under different ALD conditions, due to side chain structure variation of the precursors. Refractive indices (1.45–1.46) and band gaps (8.5–8.7 eV) are found to be similar to thermal oxide. X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed 3–5 at% C and 0.2–0.4 at% N in the films and an O/Si ratio of ∼1.9 when deposited at 190 °C. The first silane pulse resulted in a surface coverage of ∼1.2 molecules per nm2 as determined by microbalance measurements. The O3 oxidation rate is faster for silanes with Si–OMe groups than those with Si–Me functionalities, and less effective at lower temperatures for some silane precursors. These cyclic azasilanes are promising precursors for ALD SiO2 and surface functionalization, and the variation in the structures provides possibilities to study reaction mechanisms and control surface chemistry.

ALD for Industry, 17-18 January 2017, Swissôtel Dresden Am Schloss

As you may have noticed, Dresden has developed to the German Hotbed for ALD and we want to make you aware of an ALD event in Dresden early 2017 that may be very interesting for your participation since it will have a strong Industrial focus for ALD and you will be able to reach out to the German ALD market and your potential & existing customers here.

Together with Christoph Hossbach at TU Dresden IHM I am Co-Charing this Workshop organized by EFDS (http://www.efds.org/) If you like to participate exhibit at the event please contatct.

 

EFDS - Europäische Forschungsgesellschaft Dünne Schichten e.V.

contact: Grit Kotschenreuther
Gostritzer Straße 63 

kotschenreuther@efds.org
01217 Dresden Tel. +49 351 8718372

ALD for Industry, 17-18 January 2017, Swissôtel Dresden Am Schloss

"This event provides the opportunity to learn more about fundamentals of ALD technology, to get informed about recent progress in the field and to get in contact with industrial and academic partners. Increase your visibility and present your company in our accompanying exhibition."

http://www.efds.org/appointments-detail/events/ald-workshop-ald-for-industry.html

More information will be available soon!

Kind regards & greetings from Dresden,

Jonas & Christoph

 

 

 

 

Call for Abstract "Atomic Layer Deposition Applications" PRiME 2016/230th ECS Meeting Honolulu, Hawaii

Call for Abstracts

PRiME 2016/230th ECS Meeting (October 2-7, 2016)

• Submission Instructions
• Call for Papers PDF
• ORCID - "Own" your published work: get an ORCID identifier. You are encouraged to create an ORCID ID here before beginning your abstract submission, and then link your record in the abstract system to your record in ORCID during the submission process.
• Open Access - It's never too early to think about publishing your work in an ECS Journal. ECS Journals are now Author Choice Open Access, learn more.

Abstracts are due no later than Friday, 15 April 2016 at 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time.

 

G - ELECTRONIC MATERIALS AND PROCESSING

G01 - High Purity and High Mobility Semiconductors 14

G02 - Semiconductors, Dielectrics, and Metals for Nanoelectronics 14

G03 - Atomic Layer Deposition Applications 12

G04 - Processing Materials of 3D Interconnects, Damascene and Electronics Packaging 8

G05 - SiGe, Ge, and Related Materials: Materials, Processing, and Devices 7

 

Recent Publications on ALD and ALE from JVST A and JVST B

JVST Publishes Fundamental and Applied Research Articles and Letters on Atomic Layer Deposition and Etching

Recent Publications on ALD and ALE from JVST A and JVST B

Spectroscopic investigation of the electronic structure of thin atomic layer deposition HfO₂ films

Silma Alberton Corrêa, Simone Brizzi and Dieter Schmeisser

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 01A117 (2016) | Read More

Atomic layer deposition by reaction of molecular oxygen with tetrakisdimethylamido-metal precursors

J Provine, Peter Schindler, Jan Torgersen, Hyo Jin Kim, Hans-Peter Karnthaler and Fritz B. Prinz

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 01A138 (2016) | Read More

Standing and sitting adlayers in atomic layer deposition of ZnO

Zhengning Gao, Fei Wu, Yoon Myung, Ruixiang Fei, Ravindra Kanjolia, Li Yang and Parag Banerjee

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 01A143 (2016) | Read More

Improvement of the thermal stability of nickel silicide using a ruthenium interlayer deposited via remote plasma atomic layer deposition

Inhye Lee, Jingyu Park, Heeyoung Jeon, Hyunjung Kim, Changhee Shin, Seokyoon Shin, Kunyoung Lee and Hyeongtag Jeon

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 031502 (2016) | Read More

Growth per cycle of alumina atomic layer deposition on nano- and micro-powders

Kedar Manandhar, James A. Wollmershauser, Janice E. Boercker and Boris N. Feigelson

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 021519 (2016) | Read More

Growth, intermixing, and surface phase formation for zinc tin oxide nanolaminates produced by atomic layer deposition

Carl Hägglund, Thomas Grehl, Jukka T. Tanskanen, Ye Sheng Yee, Marja N. Mullings, Adriaan J. M. Mackus, Callisto MacIsaac, Bruce M. Clemens, Hidde H. Brongersma and Stacey F. Bent

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 021516 (2016) | Read More

Atomic layer deposition of two dimensional MoS₂ on 150 mm substrates

Arturo Valdivia, Douglas J. Tweet and John F. Conley Jr.

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 021515 (2016) | Read More

Initial evaluation and comparison of plasma damage to atomic layer carbon materials using conventional and low T_e plasma sources

Ashish V. Jagtiani, Hiroyuki Miyazoe, Josephine Chang, Damon B. Farmer, Michael Engel, Deborah Neumayer, Shu-Jen Han, Sebastian U. Engelmann, David R. Boris, Sandra C. Hernández, Evgeniya H. Lock, Scott G. Walton and Eric A. Joseph

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 01B103 (2016) | Read More

Fluorocarbon assisted atomic layer etching of SiO₂ and Si using cyclic Ar/C₄F₈ and Ar/CHF₃ plasma

Dominik Metzler, Chen Li, Sebastian Engelmann, Robert L. Bruce, Eric A. Joseph and Gottlieb S. Oehrlein

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 01B101 (2016) | Read More

At the edge between metal organic chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition: Fast Atomic Sequential Technique, for high throughput conformal deposition

Fabien Piallat and Julien Vitiello

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 34, 021202 (2016) | Read More