AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Vacuum Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session VT-TuP

Paper VT-TuP17
A Novel Reactor Setup for Surface and Gas-Phase Diagnostics during Atomic and Molecular Layer Deposition

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Session: Vacuum Technology Posters and Student-Built Vacuum Systems Poster Competition
Presenter: B. Jariwala, Colorado School of Mines
Authors: B. Jariwala, Colorado School of Mines
V. Rai, Colorado School of Mines
C.V. Ciobanu, Colorado School of Mines
S. Agarwal, Colorado School of Mines
Correspondent: Click to Email
In this presentation, the authors will describe the design of a versatile reactor setup with multiple in situ diagnostics to study the surface reaction mechanisms during atomic and molecular layer deposition. The setup consists of two vacuum chambers: the first chamber is equipped with real-time attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and quadrupole mass spectrometry, while the second chamber is equipped with a quartz crystal microbalance. Both chambers are connected to multiple in-house-built bubblers to supply different precursors. In addition, each chamber is equipped with an inductively-coupled, radio-frequency plasma source that is in line of sight with the substrate for plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (ALD). The precursor delivery into the chamber is controlled through solenoid valves operated via Labview. The infrared analysis chamber is ideal for observing the surface species and the gas phase products during each half-reaction cycle. However, due to the multiple diagnostics, which require several ports, the chamber volume is large resulting in long precursor exposure and purge cycles. On the other hand, the second process chamber is a hot-wall tubular reactor with a small volume, which allows shorter reaction cycles enabling the deposition of films that are several 10s of nm in thickness: these thicknesses are required to obtain enough sensitivity for ex situ IR and x-ray diffraction analysis. We will specifically present results for the thermal and plasma-assisted ALD of TiO2 that will demonstrate the synergistic utilization of each diagnostic tool to unravel the specific surface reactions during film growth.