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Technology
Atomicity has developed an atomic layer deposition tool that breaks away from traditional approaches of viscous flow-through reactors to create a tool of unprecedented capability. Details of the system are still proprietary given the patent pending status and cannot be shared at this time. However, provided below are some excerpted portions of a presentation made at the ALD 2005 conference in San Jose, CA August 7-10, 2005 that show preliminary results from a 100mm wafer processing prototype tool.
- High Throughput and Film quality
- Prototype demonstrated unprecedented deposition rate of ~200 angstroms/min for trimethylaluminum (TMA) and water chemistry with good linearity (Fig. 1 below) better than 1.5% non-uniformity (Fig. 2).
- Film quality - XPS results indicate very low carbon levels and good aluminum to oxygen stoichiometric ratios.
- Cost of Ownership
- Inherent in the design is the separation of precursors except at the point of desired application, the substrate. This means that vacuum system (pumps, components, chamber) degradation is substantially reduced resulting in more uptime and less costs.
- Precursor utilization is very high so overburden loading is minimized and cost savings are realized by lower chemical consumption.
- For the production environment, high throughput translates into doing more with less capital investment in less clean room space.
- Low Vapor Precursors
- Because the operating pressure of the system can be very low, low vapor pressure precursors can be readily used, which offers further flexibility and capability to the tool.
- Plasma Compatible
Figure 1. Thickness vs. number of cycles at a rate of 4 cycles/sec (Hz),
demonstrating good linearity/digital control.
Figure 2: Non-uniformity vs. number of cycles at 4 cycles/sec (Hz)
demonstrating good uniformity control. These are preliminary results only.
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