AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Thin Film Monday Sessions
       Session TF-MoM

Paper TF-MoM10
Atomic Layer Deposition of Aluminium Silicate Films

Monday, November 13, 2006, 11:00 am, Room 2022

Session: ALD and Applications I
Presenter: P.J. Evans, ANSTO, Australia
Authors: P.J. Evans, ANSTO, Australia
P.H. Mutin, Universite Montpellier, France
G. Triani, ANSTO, Australia
Z. Zhang, ANSTO, Australia
A. Atanacio, ANSTO, Australia
J. Bartlett, ANSTO, Australia
Correspondent: Click to Email
The ALD of silicate films has been the subject of several recent studies.@footnote 1-3@ Interest in these materials has been stimulated in part by research into suitable candidates for the high-k dielectric layer in future semiconductor devices. While the ALD of hafnium and zirconium silicates have figured prominently in work to date, other metal silicates, such as those of aluminium, have also been reported.@footnote 4,5@ The present study investigates the deposition of aluminium silicate films by means of the reaction between aluminium chloride (AlCl@sub 3@), tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) and water at temperatures in the range 200 - 300 °C. An in-situ quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) was used to monitor the growth process in real time. The results of these measurements indicated that a single AlCl@sub 3@/H@sub 2@O pulse sequence followed by 3 - 5 pulse sequences of TMOS/H@sub 2@O enhanced both the growth rate and amount of Si in the film. These conditions were then used to deposit films on silicon wafers for ex-situ characterisation with ellipsometry, SIMS and XPS. It was found that films with approximately equal amounts of Al and Si could be obtained with the above precursors at 250 °C. At lower temperatures, the film growth rate decreased rapidly to the extent that negligible growth occurred at 200 °C. This finding is similar to that observed in other cases where ALD film growth has been found to depend on the effect of temperature on reaction kinetics. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@Vainonen-Ahlgren, E.; Tois, E.; Ahlgren, T.; Khriachtchev, L.; Marles, J.; Haukka, S.; Tuominen, M.; Comp. Mater. Sci. 2003, 27, 65. @footnote 2@Kukli, K.; Ritala, M.; Leskelä, M.; Sajavaara, T.; Keinonen, J.; Hegde, R.I.; Gilmer, D.C.; Tobin, P.J. J. Electrochem. Soc., 2004, 151, F98. @footnote 3@Kang, S-W.; Rhee, S-W.; George, S.M. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 2004, 22, 2392. @footnote 4@Brei, V.V.; Kasperskii, V.A.; Chuiko, A.A.; Russ. J. Appl. Chem. 1996, 69, 335. @footnote5@Lim, J.W.; Yun, S.J.; Lee, J.H.; Electrochem. Solid-State Lett. 2005, 8, F25.