HIGH-THROUGHPUT PROCESS FOR ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION

Atomic layer deposition (ALD)have been proven to be a very attractive technique for the fabrication of advanced gate dielectrics and DRAM insulators due to excellent conformality and precise control of film thickness and composition, However, one major disadvantages of ALD is its relatively low deposition rate (throughput) because the deposition rate is typically limited by the time required for purging process between the introduction of precursors. In order to improve its throughput, many efforts have been made by commercial companies, for example,the modification reactor and development of precursors. However, any promising solution has not reported to date. We developed a new concept ALD system(Lucida TM S200) with high-throughput. In this process, a continuous flow of ALD precursor and purging gas are simultaneously introduced from different locations in the ALD reactor. A cyclic ALD process is carried out by moving the wafer holder up and down. Therefore, the time required for ALD reaction cycle is determined by speed of the wafer holder and vapor pressure of precursors. We will present the operating principle of our system and results of deposition.