Invited Paper TF+AM+EM+PS-TuM10
From Fundamental Insights into Growth and Nucleation Mechanisms to Area-selective Deposition

Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 11:00 am, Room 104B

Area-selective deposition holds the potential to build structures from the bottom up, only where needed, with atomic precision. It is gaining importance for manufacturing of nano-electronic devices as it enables self-aligned deposition for accurate pattern placement and bottom-up deposition in trenches or holes. It can simplify complex integration flows and implies significant cost reduction. The key to area-selective deposition is surface chemistry, as it is based on the surface dependence of deposition techniques like chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD). Today, however, only few industrial processes make use of area-selective deposition, mainly because only few materials can be deposited with sufficient selectivity. In addition, defectivity is a great challenge, as substrate inhibition is often associated with island growth. Detailed insights into the surface chemistry and nucleation mechanisms is essential, as this insight can be used to expand the material combinations accessible by area-selective deposition, as well as to design defect removal strategies. Finally, area-selective deposition is affected by patterning due to changes in surface composition and/or due to diffusion. This illustrates the need for understanding and optimization of the processes in patterns with relevant dimensions. In this work, we review our current understanding of the inherent surface dependence of ALD processes. We show how insight into the growth and nucleation mechanisms of ALD can be applied to enable area-selective deposition with defect removal solutions.