| AVS 66th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Thin Films Division | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session TF-TuA |
| Session: | Emerging Applications for Thin Films |
| Presenter: | Huib Heezen, SALDtech B.V., Netherlands |
| Authors: | C. Frijters, SALDtech B.V., Netherlands J. Smeltink, SALDtech B.V., Netherlands H. Heezen, SALDtech B.V., Netherlands P. Poodt, SALDtech B.V., Netherlands |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Atmospheric pressure Spatial ALD (sALD) is able to deliver high deposition rates while maintaining the advantages of conventional ALD, such as low defect density, high conformality and thickness uniformity. First industrial applications of Spatial ALD include passivation of c-Si solar cells and roll-to-roll manufacturing of flexible barrier foils. An emerging application for Spatial ALD is flat panel (OLED) displays. Examples include semiconducting and dielectric layers for use in thin-film transistors, and thin-film encapsulation for flexible OLED displays. As today’s displays are fabricated using glass panels in the order of several square meters, a remaining challenge is the development of large-area Spatial ALD deposition technology that is able to combine high throughput with uniform performance across very large areas.
We are developing large-area Spatial ALD technology, and as a first step between the lab and the display fab, we have installed a large area Spatial ALD sheet-to-sheet tool which can handle up to 400x325 mm2 sized substrates. With this tool we are able to deposit uniform films across a deposition width of 400 mm. The whole tool is operated under an atmospheric pressure but inert N2 environment. The tool can be used to deposit a variety of materials using both thermal and plasma-enhanced Spatial ALD.
We will present the basic deposition performance of the tool in terms of thickness- and compositional uniformity. Large-area thickness non-uniformities of less than 1% are achieved for several oxide materials. Next, we will focus on two display-related applications: thin-film encapsulation of OLED devices, and high mobility InZnO and InGaZnO semiconductors for thin-film transistors. We will explain the requirements, the deposition process and the performance of the deposited films. Finally, the challenges in up-scaling Spatial ALD to plate sizes of 1.5 m and beyond will be discussed.