Microwave plasma assisted ALD development for the deposition of gate oxides and ALD of high k dielectrics

Abstract

The semiconductor industry s urge towards faster, smaller and cheaper newlineintegrated circuits has lead the industry to smaller node devices. The integrated circuits that are now under volume production belong to 22 nm newlineand 14 nm technology nodes. In 2007 the 45 nm technology came with newlinethe revolutionary high-and#954;/metal gate structure. 22 nm technology utilizes newlinefully depleted tri-gate transistor structure. The 14 nm technology is a newlinecontinuation of the 22 nm technology. Intel is using second generation newlinetri-gate technology in 14 nm devices. After 14 nm, the semiconductor industry is expected to continue the scaling with 10 nm devices followed by newline7 nm. Recently, IBM has announced successful production of 7 nm node newlinetest chips. This is the fashion how nanoelectronics industry is proceeding newlinewith its scaling trend. newlineFor the present node of technologies selective deposition and selective removal of the materials are required. Atomic layer deposition and the newlineatomic layer etching are the respective techniques used for selective deposition and selective removal. Atomic layer deposition still remains as newlinea futuristic manufacturing approach that deposits materials and films in newlineexact places. In addition to the nano/microelectronics industry, ALD is newlinealso widening its application areas and acceptance. The usage of ALD newlineequipments in industry exhibits a diversification trend. With this trend, newlinelarge area, batch processing, particle ALD and plasma enhanced like ALD newlineequipments are becoming prominent in industrial applications. In this newlinework, the development of an atomic layer deposition tool with microwave newlineplasma capability is described, which is affordable even for lightly funded newlineresearch labs. newlineThe report starts with a brief introduction about the atomic layer deposition tool and its operational procedure. The importance of ALD in newlinedepositing high-and#954; dielectric thin films and the microelectronics scenariowith the role of high-and#954; materials is also briefed. newline