Atomic layer
epitaxy
Epitaxy refers to a type of crystal growth or material deposition in which new crystalline layers are formed with one or more well-defined orientations with respect to the crystalline seed layer. The deposited crystalline film is called an epit ...
(ALE), more generally known as
atomic layer deposition
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a thin-film deposition technique based on the sequential use of a gas-phase chemical process; it is a subclass of chemical vapour deposition. The majority of ALD reactions use two chemicals called precursors (also ...
(ALD),
is a specialized form of thin film growth (
epitaxy
Epitaxy refers to a type of crystal growth or material deposition in which new crystalline layers are formed with one or more well-defined orientations with respect to the crystalline seed layer. The deposited crystalline film is called an epit ...
) that typically deposit alternating
monolayer A monolayer is a single, closely packed layer of atoms, molecules, or cells. In some cases it is referred to as a self-assembled monolayer. Monolayers of layered crystals like graphene and molybdenum disulfide are generally called 2D materials.
...
s of two elements onto a substrate. The crystal lattice structure achieved is thin, uniform, and aligned with the structure of the substrate. The reactants are brought to the substrate as alternating pulses with "dead" times in between. ALE makes use of the fact that the incoming material is bound strongly until all sites available for chemisorption are occupied. The dead times are used to flush the excess material.
It is mostly used in
semiconductor fabrication
Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuit (IC) chips such as modern computer processors, microcontrollers, and memory chips such as NAND flash and DRAM that are pres ...
to grow thin films of thickness in the nanometer scale.
Technique
This technique was invented in 1974 and patented the same year (patent published in 1976) by Dr.
Tuomo Suntola
Tuomo Suntola (born 1943) is a Finnish physicist, inventor, and technology leader. He is best known for his pioneering research in materials science, developing the thin film growth technique called atomic layer deposition.
Early life
Suntola w ...
at the Instrumentarium company, Finland. Dr. Suntola's purpose was to grow thin films of
Zinc sulfide
Zinc sulfide (or zinc sulphide) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula of ZnS. This is the main form of zinc found in nature, where it mainly occurs as the mineral sphalerite. Although this mineral is usually black because of various i ...
to fabricate
electroluminescent
Electroluminescence (EL) is an optical and electrical phenomenon, in which a material emits light in response to the passage of an electric current or to a strong electric field. This is distinct from black body light emission resulting from h ...
flat panel display
A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipment.
Flat-panel displays are thin, lightweight, provide better li ...
s. The main trick used for this technique is the use of a self-limiting chemical reaction to control in an accurate way the thickness of the film deposited. Since the early days, ALE (ALD) has grown to a global thin film technology
which has enabled the continuation of
Moore's law
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empir ...
. In 2018, Suntola received the
Millennium Technology Prize
The Millennium Technology Prize ( fi, Millennium-teknologiapalkinto) is one of the world's largest technology prizes. It is awarded once every two years by Technology Academy Finland, an independent foundation established by Finnish industries, ...
for ALE (ALD) technology.
Compared to basic
chemical vapour deposition
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a vacuum deposition method used to produce high quality, and high-performance, solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films.
In typical CVD, the wafer (substra ...
, in ALE (ALD), chemical reactants are pulsed alternatively in a reaction chamber and then chemisorb in a saturating manner on the surface of the substrate, forming a chemisorbed monolayer.
ALD introduces two complementary precursors (e.g.
Al(CH3)3 and H
2O
) alternatively into the reaction chamber. Typically, one of the precursors will
adsorb
Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions or molecules from a gas, liquid or dissolved solid to a surface. This process creates a film of the ''adsorbate'' on the surface of the ''adsorbent''. This process differs from absorption, in which a fl ...
onto the substrate surface until it saturates the surface and further growth cannot occur until the second precursor is introduced. Thus the film thickness is controlled by the number of precursor cycles rather than the deposition time as is the case for conventional CVD processes. ALD allows for extremely precise control of film thickness and uniformity.
See also
*
Atomic layer deposition
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a thin-film deposition technique based on the sequential use of a gas-phase chemical process; it is a subclass of chemical vapour deposition. The majority of ALD reactions use two chemicals called precursors (also ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Plasma-assisted Atomic Layer Deposition by the Plasma & Materials Processing group at Eindhoven University of TechnologyAtomic layer epitaxy – a valuable tool for nanotechnology?ALENET – Atomic Layer Epitaxy NetworkSurface smoothing of GaAs microstructure by atomic layer epitaxy
Thin film deposition
Finnish inventions