Lotus News: LotusAT @ 2024 ECS PRiME Conference - Presenting High Speed ALD film growth on 3D Objects

High Speed Spatial PEALD of 3D Objects Using Single-Sided and Double-Sided Plasma Exposure

Spatial ALD offers a path to major increases in deposition speed without sacrificing the unique properties of conventional temporally processed ALD coatings, while also enabling unique processes not suitable for temporal ALD.  Most spatial ALD systems to date have been developed for coating flat surfaces such as thin wafers or glass panels, and rely on narrow channels and passageways, combined with directed gas flows and differential pumping to keep the ALD precursors and reactants separated from each other as the substrates are transported between the respective regions of the reactor.  In some cases, these gaps must be maintained to within a few tens of microns to prevent vapor phase precursor/reactant interaction, and the resulting unwanted CVD growth.  Thus, the use of this method for precursor separation is not suitable for relatively tall and irregularly shaped substrates such as optical lenses, or assembled electronics and components, such as stuffed circuit boards or electronic devices.  In this work, a novel method of preventing precursor/reactant interaction is utilized to allow large, tall passageways for substrate movement between a confined DC oxygen plasma zone and a large open area metal precursor zone in a rotary spatial PEALD reactor.  Using this configuration, uniform ALD SiO2coatings are demonstrated on spherical substrates one centimeter in diameter using a single planar plasma electrode facing only one surface of the substrate, at speeds up to six angstroms per second.  A second configuration for the plasma source, encompassing two opposing electrodes, is then used to demonstrate uniform deposition on spherical substrate two centimeters in diameter.

Wednesday, October 9, 2024 at 16:30

ECS PRiME 2024