Paper TF-TuM10
Simulation of Atomic Layer Deposition

Tuesday, October 31, 2017, 11:00 am, Room 20

Semiconductor industry overcomes many challenges by advancing materials processing to new levels of precision, accuracy, manufacturability, and reliability, while the role of numerical simulations grows. Here we present new results on Monte Carlo feature-scale simulations of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) conducted with a feature-scale simulator, FPS3D [1-5], as well as comparison of obtained simulation results with corresponding experiments. The ALD processes are often complex, involving large molecules and, to our knowledge, have not been addressed by other feature-scale simulations except via FPS3D [4-5]. ALD has a potential for conformal and precise deposition. However it requires definite conditions for being successful, and those conditions are very important to understand. The main factor of all of ALD schemes is the cyclic change of flux parameters and the corresponding chemistry, producing a single monolayer or, most typically, a fraction of a monolayer of the deposited film after application of a cycle. We consider two very different cases of SiN film deposition. The first one uses cycles of dichlorosilane and ammonia plasma, while the second one applies cycles of disilane and hydrazine. The SiN deposition rate for the former corresponds to a half of a monolayer per cycle, while for the later, it saturates at values close to a full monolayer per cycle. Steric hindrance was found to be an important factor in explaining those phenomena.

References:

[1] P. Moroz, IEEE Trans. on Plasma Science, 39 2804 (2011).

[2] P. Moroz, D. J. Moroz, ECS Transactions, 50 61 (2013).

[3] P. Moroz, D. J. Moroz, J. Physics: CS 550 012030 (2014).

[4] P. Moroz, 15^th Int. Conf. on Atomic Layer Deposition, Portland, OR (2015).

[5] P. Moroz, D. J. Moroz, to be published in Japan. J. of Appl. Physics (2017).