On the road to Denver for ALD2017?

Twitter is heating up with announcements of people and companies going to the ALD2017 conference in Denver 15 to 18 of July. Here is a selection of some of them. Please take a chance to download the conference app (see tweet below)

It is on, #ALDALE2017 pic.twitter.com/WnTjQFE4Hu

— Scientist Tiger (@sean_t_barry) July 14, 2017

#ALDALE2017 the mobile app user name= ALD the password= Denver

— AVS (@AVS_Members) July 12, 2017

Preperations for #ALDALE2017 :) pic.twitter.com/P6ibXx8yYY

— Max Gebhard (@max_gebhard) July 13, 2017

Katja can't wait to present her study on #ALDep of copper at #ALDALE2017 @iivosen_tomi is eager too! pic.twitter.com/SA8KzjRq6B

— HelsinkiALD (@HelsinkiALD) July 14, 2017

Just a few days to go @AvsAld conference (15-18 July). Visit us at booth #33 and speak to our #ALDep experts #ALDALE2017 pic.twitter.com/OeGsQ2h7rH

— Oxford Instruments (@OxInst) July 13, 2017

Counting down to ALD2017! Come learn about our CVD/ALD #precursors & more at booth 34! #ALDALE2017 #CVDep #ALDep https://t.co/NBygrem21B pic.twitter.com/JxgkoTEbTu

— Strem Chemicals Inc. (@StremChemicals) July 12, 2017

The George group will have a strong presence at #ALDALE2017 with 11 presentations. Find out more: https://t.co/JwKJ6YcAxV #ALDep #ALEtch

— George Laboratory (@GeorgeGroupCU) July 11, 2017

Beneq is a proud platinum sponsor of #ALDALE2017. Visit our event website to get all the details. https://t.co/GrwxFnlz4b #beneqblog #ALDep pic.twitter.com/uGshtkGXof

— Beneq Corporation (@beneqcorp) July 12, 2017

Stop by NSI booth 24, #ALDALE2017 #NSI #ald2017 pic.twitter.com/aQeDkwnCGa

— kyle kimmerle (@pdxguy2009) July 15, 2017

Epivalence is Open for business #ALDALE2017 pic.twitter.com/A380ZOdII4

— Simon Rushworth (@SARushworth) July 15, 2017

We're proud to be a platinum sponsor of #ALDALE2017, which is all about #AtomicScale processing. More info: https://t.co/jmmSC1c7Ud pic.twitter.com/izMQFfPIdo

— LamResearch (@LamResearch) July 14, 2017

Film Sense and Kurt J. Lesker: in-situ Ellipsometry with the FS-1

The Film Sense vision “to create easy-to-use and affordable ellipsometers” is especially relevant for in-situ applications. The Film Sense FS-1 realizes this vision by providing the power of Multi-Wavelength Ellipsometry, at an affordable price and compact size that is ideal for in-situ measurements. The FS-1 can provide real time thickness data with exceptional precision, which can be indispensable for the efficient development of new ALD processes. In the plot below, the “steps” in the data are direct observations of the thickness changes on the sample throughout the ALD cycles: the thickness increases and saturates as the precursor is introduced (trimethyl aluminum in this case), and then decreases as the film is oxidized (thermally by H2O in this case). 

The relationship between Film Sense and Kurt J. Lesker dates back to almost the inception of Film Sense.  In fact, the first Film Sense FS-1 in-situ testing was performed on a Kurt J. Lesker ALD150LX reactor in 2014.  The FS-1 has since been integrated on multiple Lesker ALD reactors, and has been used to characterize a wide variety of thin films including:  Al2O3, TiO2, HfO2, and TiN.

 

The ALD150LX was designed from the ground up for advanced R&D and features remote plasma as well as in-situ ellipsometry as a primary means of real time process monitoring and control during ALD.  Patented Precursor Focusing Technology^TM (PFT^TM) prevents unwanted film deposition on sensitive surfaces inside the reactor including the analytical port windows used for light transmission during in-situ ellipsometry.  The layout of the plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) reactor makes installation and operation of the compact FS-1 unit simple and easy. 

According to Bruce Rayner, Principal Scientist – ALD at the Kurt J. Lesker Company, “The FS-1 provides excellent performance at a very attractive price, and its robust, compact design is ideally suited for in-situ ALD applications.”

If you are coming to ALD2017 in Denver, please visit the Lesker booth #31 to see a live demonstration of the FS-1 integrated on an ALD150LX reactor.  At the Film Sense booth #1, an FS-XY150 automated mapping stage will be on display.

The Film Sense FS-1 ellipsometer is now available as an option for the Lesker ALD150LX reactor.  For more information please contact Dan Hadwiger (mailto:dhadwiger@film-sense.com) or Noel O’Toole (mailto: noelo@lesker.com), or visit our websites at http://www.film-sense.com/products/fs-1-ald-applications/fs-1-lesker-ald150lx and https://www.lesker.com/newweb/vacuum_systems/deposition_systems_ald_ald150lx.cfm.

RASIRC Presents TiN ALD Grown with BRUTE® Hydrazine at ALD Conference 2017

BRUTE Peroxide and BRUTE Hydrazine showcased in technical presentations

San Diego, Calif – July 13, 2017–RASIRC will announce the latest generation of its BRUTE Hydrazine product line at the annual ALD Conference held July 15-18, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. At low temperatures, ammonia or nitrogen plasmas cannot grow nitride ALD films on three dimensional, high aspect ratio (HAR) structures. BRUTE Hydrazine solves this problem and enables process engineers to incorporate nitrides into new device architectures. 

RASIRC Chief Technology Officer Dan Alvarez will present “Low Resistivity Titanium Nitride ALD: Low Temperature Enabled by the Use of Ultra‐High Purity Hydrazine” on Tuesday July 18, at 1:45PM in Room Plaza F. Alvarez is a contributing author on another paper and two posters to be presented during the conference. RASIRC will also present the latest findings related to novel reactive chemistries for in-situ surface functionalization at Booth #16.

“The next generation of semiconductors require a new generation of precursors suited for low temperature, three dimensional deposition processes,” said Jeffrey Spiegelman, RASIRC President and Founder. “Our BRUTE chemistries meet these requirements, enabling surface functionalization, selective deposition, oxidation or nitridation without causing surface damage.”

IC Deposition Materials Market Forecast of $1.2B by 2021

Precursors for metals and dielectrics in strong demand for finFETs and 3D-NAND

San Diego, CA, July 11, 2017: TECHCET CA—the advisory service firm providing electronic materials information—today announced that specialty chemical precursor market for the deposition of dielectrics and metals in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication is forecasted to increase at ~10% CAGR through the year 2021. TECHCET’s proprietary Wafer Forecast Model (WFM) shows that 3D-NAND devices are expected to grow at a rapid pace from 2016 and become one of the top three market segments by 2020. Logic ICs will continue to evolve, from 3D finFET devices to Gate-All-Around Nano-Wires (GAA-NW), enabled by new critical materials and manufacturing processes as detailed in new reports from TECHCET, “Advanced Insulating Dielectric Precursors,” and "ALD/CVD High-k & Metal Precursors." 

Precursors tracked by TECHCET for ALD/CVD of metal and high-k dielectric films on IC wafers include sources of aluminum, cobalt, hafnium, tantalum, titanium, tungsten, and zirconium. The total market for 2017 is now estimated to be US$435M, growing to US$638M in 2021. The top-2 suppliers are estimated to hold more than half of the total available market, with many players competing to supply the next enabling molecule. In particular, cobalt precursor demand is forecasted to reach >$80M in 2021 as foundries transition to below 14nm-node processing. As a potential conflict mineral, TECHCET tracks the sub-suppliers of cobalt.

“Metal precursors have had double-digit growth over an extended period of time, and we expect that to continue as the IC industry transitions to 10nm- and 7nm-node logic and 3D-NAND fabrication, with an average long term CAGR of 11% over 2013 to 2021,” says Dr. Jonas Sundqvist, lead author of the report, senior technology analyst with TECHCET and researcher with Fraunhofer IKTS. “Dielectric precursors growth today is clearly driven by dielectric PEALD deposition in multiple patterning, and by dielectric CVD in 3D-NAND.”

Precursors tracked by TECHCET for ALD/CVD/SOD of advanced dielectric films on IC wafers include multiple sources of silicon. The total market for 2017 is now estimated to be just over US$400M, growing to US$560M in 2021. Current growth over 10% is expected to slow slightly to be in the 8-10% range over 2019-2021. Anticipated near-term developments include transitions from CVD to ALD for several IC fab modules.

Argonne National Laboratory’s Continuous ALD Technology Licensed Exclusively to Forge Nano

LOUISVILLE, Colorado July 7, 2017: Argonne National Laboratory has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Forge Nano to commercialize Argonne’s patented system and method for continuous atomic layer deposition. This license enhances Forge Nano’s ability to offer and protect key intellectual property rights for its customers across an even broader array of strategic markets.

Forge Nano’s innovative manufacturing systems are industrializing the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) process by offering a unique value proposition toward upgrading material performance for wide-ranging applications. ALD is a process that deposits a uniform and ultrathin encapsulating coating around any material. The process can used to upgrade many materials, such as powders utilized in energy storage applications (lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, ultracapacitors, etc.), as well as many non-energy applications as well. ALD allows for coating thicknesses down to Angstroms (1/100,000th the thickness of a human hair). Such control allows for the application of coatings that are thick enough to eliminate unwanted reactions that cause degradation within energy storage systems or moisture-sensitive materials, yet thin enough to not adversely affect desirable material properties. ALD coatings are by far the most compelling coating solution for eliminating capacity fade and enabling higher overall performance and safety in batteries. ALD is a process that has existed for decades with hundreds of publications demonstrating its capability as a process to improve material properties for a wide variety of applications. However, due to a lack of manufacturing innovation, it has remained a lab-scale process utilized primarily by academics. Forge Nano has developed, patented and successfully demonstrated a high-throughput process for applying ALD, which reduces the overall cost of energy storage devices while improving their performance and safety.

Fraunhofer IST use ALD to precision coat silicon spheres for the new kilogram standard

Precision work: defect-free coatings for silicon spheres

Fraunhofer IST Press Release / 4.7.2017 

More information on the ALD process and hardware can be found in this exellent presentation by Sanjeev Kumar Gurram, currently working as a consultant for Fraunhofer IST (LINK)

The prototype kilogram – to which all scales are calibrated to – is losing weight. International efforts are striving to redefine the base unit for measuring mass and, in future, redefine the kilogram on natural constants. For this purpose, the Avogadro experiment determines the number of atoms in almost perfect silicon spheres. Fraunhofer researchers have recently succeeded in homogeneously coating the spherical surfaces – the measurement uncertainty can be limited to a range below 10 micrograms.

The silicon sphere to be coated must be handled like a raw egg. On the right in the picture: one of the three-point mounts. © Photo Fraunhofer IST, Falko Oldenburg

Due to the fact that the prototype kilogram – the unit of mass upon which the weight of a kilo is based – is becoming increasingly lighter. The reason for this, however, is unknown. Now researchers are seeking alternatives for the platinum-iridium alloy artefact that is stored in a safe in Paris. The basic plan is to redefine the kilogram. In future, a physical constant will replace the material kilogram.

Thus, a team of scientists from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) (the national metrology institute of Germany) is conducting experiments with spheres of isotope-enriched silicon, which could be used as a new calibration standard. The experts, therefore, must determine the Avogadro constant, which indicates the number of atoms in one mole. ”We calculate the number of atoms in a sphere and use mathematical methods to obtain the number of atoms per mole. In simple terms, we find out how much a silicon atom weighs and through inverse conclusion can thus determine how many silicon atoms are needed for a kilogram,” explains Dr. Ingo Busch, physicist at the PTB in Braunschweig. ”The mole is the mediator between the atomic mass scale and the kilogram.”

Inside the ALD coating plant (a BENEQ TSF200) at the Fraunhofer IST: the coating chamber for three-dimensional objects. © Photo Fraunhofer IST, Jan Benz

Tanaka Precious Metals will present new Ruthenium precursors at SEMICON West

Tanaka Precious Metals (Tanaka) will be exhibiting at SEMICON WEST 2017, the world's largest semiconductor related exhibition. The event will be held from Tuesday, July 11 through Thursday, July 13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. At its booth, Tanaka will be unveiling its precious metal precursors for the first time, which are being effectively used in the microfabrication processing of modern semiconductors.

Press release : LINK

Film Sense and Beneq Demonstrate in situ Multi-Wavelength Ellipsometry

Film Sense LLC and Beneq Oy have successfully installed and tested the Film Sense FS-1 Multi-Wavelength Ellipsometer system on a Beneq TFS 200 ALD reactor. According to Pasi Meriläinen, Head of Equipment and Projects, Thin Film Equipment at Beneq, “the FS-1 exceeded our expectations for ease of installation, operation, and performance”. The FS-1 brings the power of in situ Multi-Wavelength ellipsometry to ALD at a very affordable price.

The FS-1 ellipsometer can provide in situ, real time thickness data during the ALD process, with sub-nanometer thickness resolution. The in situ FS-1 data plotted below was acquired on a Beneq TFS 200 ALD reactor, and confirms the linear deposition rate of the Al2O3 film. Real time thickness information is important for verifying the performance of existing ALD processes, and can significantly reduce the development time when exploring new ALD processes and precursor materials. The in situ FS-1 data is especially valuable for characterizing the initial stages of growth, and can directly observe incubation time and other non-ideal ALD growth mode effects.

The Film Sense FS-1 ellipsometer is an option for the Beneq TFS 200 ALD reactor. For more information about the Film Sense FS-1 ellipsometer please contact Dan Hadwiger (mailto:dhadwiger@film-sense.com) or visit our website LINK. 

 

To learn more about Beneq TFS 200 contact service@beneq.com or visit the Beneq website LINK .

Picosun’s ALD technology gives a boost to GaN devices

ESPOO, Finland, and HSINCHU CITY, Taiwan, 6th July, 2017 – Picosun Oy, the leading supplier of advanced industrial Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) solutions, the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU, Taiwan), and Atom Semicon Co. Ltd. (Taiwan), have started a joint collaboration on the improvement of GaN (gallium nitride) devices with Picosun’s ALD technology. The collaboration was announced by Mr. Xiaopeng Wu, CEO of Picosun Asia, and Professor Hao-Chung Kuo from the Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering of NCTU, in the 3rd ALD Taiwan workshop arranged 23rd June 2017 by Picosun, NCTU, and Atom Semicon.

The demand for greener technology and smaller energy consumption of electrical devices are strong initiatives for semiconductor manufacturers to develop alternatives to conventional silicon-based microelectronics. GaN-based components, for example HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors), show immense potential in this. They have superior efficiency, low energy consumption, fast response, high reliability, and they enable notable chip size miniaturization with high integration and smart circuit design. These features are a significant asset especially in wireless communication and sensing systems. GaN-components are already widely used for example in power amplifiers for mobile base stations and radars. Other applications include power conversion, electric transportation, photovoltaic power conditioning, and sensor systems for IoT (Internet of Things) and various fields of industry.

Strem launch a volatile manganese precursor for ALD & CVD

Manganese Amidinate Offers High-Quality, Uniform Thin Mn Films

Thin films of transition metals and their oxides are crucial ingredients in advanced material applications such as magnetic information storage, microelectronics and catalysis.  ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) are techniques modified to deliver uniform thin films for these applications. Bis(N,N'-di-i-propylpentylamidinato)manganese(II), 25-0230, is a new manganese precursor offered by Strem Chemicals for such applications.

 

25-0230 melts at 70 ^oC and has a highly selective reactivity with molecular hydrogen or water vapor affording fine films of metal or metal oxides.  The high thermal stability (>200^oC) and volatility (vapor pressure at 90^oC is 50 mTorr) make it a great candidate for ALD and CVD applications. This amidinate precursor is highly reactive, affording the deposition of manganese at reasonable rates in the growth of Mn(0) films. This reactive precursor is far superior to the carbonyl analogs currently available.

Full information can be found at the Strem product blog page (LINK)

New process for 2D MoS2 from Oxford Instruments

Scientists at Plasma Technology have developed a new process to deposit 2D MoS2 layers directly on Graphene, creating atomic layer heterostructures. This graphene-semiconductor film is a functional layer with applications in photodetection and sensing.

Source: Oxford Instruments LINK 

MoS2 grown on Grephene (Oxford Instruments)