Dynamic Control of ALD Films for Fast & Efficient MEMS Manufacturing

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are revolutionizing how humans interact with the world. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) can be an enabling technology to improve performance of existing MEMS architectures and developing future devices.

Due to their digital growth nature, ALD processes provide a discrete and reproducible amount of film in each cycle. Multilayered films can be deposited to tune physical properties of the films, including dielectric properties, such as dielectric constant, leakage current, and breakdown voltage.  These “nanolaminate” barrier films can be produced by adding discrete layers of a 2nd metal oxide, like Al2O3 or ZrO2, to a primary dielectric, like HfO2. The multilayer technique can also be exploited to drastically improve moisture and oxygen barrier properties of ALD films over a bulk film and to tune the internal film stresses.

Whether using a single-wafer system or multi-wafer batch system, extremely low ALD deposition rates have made it difficult to implement ALD into high volume manufacturing. Another barrier to adoption of ALD in MEMS applications is the inefficiency of precursor usage, which leads to unacceptable operating costs.

In this webinar, Nano Forge will present how to use ALD to tune a few different thin film properties such as electrical barrier performance, gas diffusion barrier behavior, and internal film stress. A brief description of the differentiating features and product offerings in the ALDx toolset will also be discussed.

Forge Nano’s ALDx toolset offers the fastest and most efficient single-wafer system on the market, enabling ALD to be integrated earlier in the product development cycle.