| AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Nanomanufacturing Science and Technology Focus Topic | Monday Sessions |
| Session NM+AS+MS-MoM |
| Session: | Metrology and Environmental Issues in Nanomanufacturing |
| Presenter: | M. Junige, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany |
| Authors: | M. Junige, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany M. Geidel, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany M. Knaut, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany M. Albert, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany J.W. Bartha, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a special kind of chemical vapor deposition, which pulses at least two chemical reactants into a vacuum reactor alternately and separated by purging steps. ALD has emerged as a powerful technique for the conformal and uniform coating of complex three-dimensional structures, even on large-sized substrates. Accordingly, ALD has a high potential for application throughout the entire field of nanotechnology.[1]
Since ALD alters the physical and chemical properties of a surface during a material’s deposition, these changes are observable by direct surface analysis techniques like photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) or scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and also by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). As previously described in the References [2] - [4], we acquired ellipsometric spectra in situ and in real-time and thus monitored the ALD processes at exactly the place and the time of a sample’s modification. In addition, we conducted PES as well as SPM measurements without breaking a high vacuum after the ALD. This revealed, among others, the chemical composition as well as the roughness of a coated surface without alteration in air and so enabled the generation of appropriate optical models, which translate the ellipsometric spectra into rather descriptive quantities like a film thickness or a surface roughness.
In the present work, we will demonstrate the capability of joint in-situ real-time SE and direct surface analysis based on the ALD of two exemplary materials: tantalum nitride and ruthenium. In the linear homogeneous film growth regime of both the ALD processes, the film thickness increment per cycle (also growth per cycle, GPC) was quantified and studied for varying process parameter sets. The initial ALD growth of TaN showed all the three possible growth modes according to Puurunen [5] depending on the starting substrate material. In the case of Ru, the ALD growth initiation indicated a substrate-inhibited island growth mode irrespective of the starting substrate.
[1] G. N. Parsons, S. M. George, and M. Knez, in MRS Bulletin36, 865 (2011).
[2] M. Junige, M. Geidel, M. Knaut, M. Albert, J. W. Bartha, in IEEE 2011 Semiconductor Conference Dresden (Dresden, 2011). – DOI: 10.1109/SCD.2011.6068739
[3] M. Knaut, M. Junige, M. Albert, J. W. Bartha, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 30, 01A151 (2012).
[4] M. Geidel, M. Junige, M. Albert, J. W. Bartha: In-situ analysis on the initial growth of ultra-tin ruthenium films with atomic layer deposition, Microelectron. Eng. (manuscript submitted).
[5] R. L. Puurunen, J. Appl. Phys. 97, 121301 (2005).