Hot wire technique as a radical source for atomic layer deposition of metal and metal nitride films

Description

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of metal and metal-nitride films has triggered significant interest in semiconductor and optoelectronic industries, owing to its characteristic in depositing ultra-thin (a-few-nm) films [1, 2]. The thermal activation of precursors in conventional ALD processes has been complemented by plasma- and other means of (gaseous) radical production. For example, in order to sustain the film growth for a number of ALD processes, the dissociation of ammonia (NH3) into radicals is necessary [3, 4]. In parallel, generation of atomic hydrogen radicals can be essential for the deposition of metallic films [5, 6]. A hot-wire (heated W) filament can serve as a highly controllable, ion- and UV-free source of radicals [7]. In this premise, we have: (i) characterized the hot-wire (HW) technique for generation of atomic hydrogen (at-H) radicals from both molecular hydrogen (H2) and NH3 precursors, (ii) explored the feasibility of HW to generate N-containing radicals (N-rad) from the dissociation of NH3, and (iii) studied the effects of the so-generated N-rad in the deposition of aluminium nitride (AlN) and boron nitride (BN) films.

Period	11 Jun 2017 - 17 Jun 2017
Held at	EuroCVD 2017
Event type	Conference
Location	Linköping, Sweden
Degree of Recognition	International