0000000000465912
AUTHOR
Markus Bosund
Plasma etch characteristics of aluminum nitride mask layers grown by low-temperature plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition in SF6 based plasmas
The plasma etch characteristics of aluminum nitride (AlN) deposited by low-temperature, 200 °C, plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) was investigated for reactive ion etch (RIE) and inductively coupled plasma-reactive ion etch (ICP-RIE) systems using various mixtures of SF6 and O2 under different etch conditions. During RIE, the film exhibits good mask properties with etch rates below 10r nm/min. For ICP-RIE processes, the film exhibits exceptionally low etch rates in the subnanometer region with lower platen power. The AlN film’s removal occurred through physical mechanisms; consequently, rf power and chamber pressure were the most significant parameters in PEALD AlN film remova…
Thermal and plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition of SiO2 using commercial silicon precursors
In this paper, we report ALD deposition of silicon dioxide using either thermal or plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD). Several aminosilanes with differing structures and reactivity were used as silicon precursors in R&D single wafer ALD tools. One of the precursors was also tested on pilot scale batch ALD using O3 as oxidant and with substrates measuring 150 × 400 mm. The SiO2 film deposition rate was greatly dependent on the precursors used, highest values being 1.5-2.0 Å/cycle at 30-200°C for one precursor with an O2 plasma. According to time-of-flight-elastic recoil detection analysis measurements carbon and nitrogen impurities were relatively low, but hydrogen content i…
Properties of AlN grown by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition
Abstract The influence of growth parameters on the properties of AlN films fabricated by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition using trimethylaluminum and ammonia precursors was investigated. The atomic concentrations, refractive index, mass density, crystallinity and surface roughness were studied from the films grown in the temperature range of 100–300 °C with plasma discharge times between 2.5 and 30 s. The AlN films were shown to be hydrogen rich having H concentrations in the range of 13–27 at.% with inverse dependence on the growth temperature. The carbon and oxygen concentrations in the films were less than 2.6% and 0.2%, respectively. The refractive index and mass density of the f…
Tribological properties of thin films made by atomic layer deposition sliding against silicon
Interfacial phenomena, such as adhesion, friction, and wear, can dominate the performance and reliability of microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices. Here, thin films made by atomic layer deposition (ALD) were tested for their tribological properties. Tribological tests were carried out with silicon counterpart sliding against ALD thin films in order to simulate the contacts occurring in the MEMS devices. The counterpart was sliding in a linear reciprocating motion against the ALD films with the total sliding distances of 5 and 20 m. Al2O3 and TiO2 coatings with different deposition temperatures were investigated in addition to Al2O3-TiO2-nanolaminate, TiN, NbN, TiAlCN, a-C:H [diamondlike car…