Powerful ALD & ALE Atomic Scale Processing Solutions

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is an advanced deposition technique that allows for ultra-thin films of a few nanometres to be deposited in a precisely controlled way. Not only does ALD provide excellent thickness control and uniformity but 3D structures can be covered with a conformal coating for high-aspect-ratio structures.

Key Benefits of ALD

• Self-limiting atomic layer-by-layer growth
• Highly-conformal coating
• Low pin-hole and particle levels
• High-quality oxides with low damage
•  Low-temperature process for sensitive substrates
• Metals with low nucleation delay
• Wide range of materials and processes

In addition to the benefits of thermal ALD, plasma ALD allows for a wider choice of precursor chemistry with enhanced film quality. It offers:

• Low-temperature processes and the remote source maintains low plasma damage
• Eliminates the need for water as a precursor, reducing purge times between ALD cycles
• Higher quality films through improved removal of impurities for lower resistivity and higher density

Applications

• Quantum Technology
  • Superconducting materials for qubits, quantum circuits and single-photon detectors
  • Oxides such as Al₂O₃ and HfO₂ for tunnel barriers in Josephson Junctions
• 2D Materials
  • Deposition of TMDs such as Mos₂ and Ws₂
• GaN Power
  • Passivation of GaN/AlGaN power devices
• Biomedical Devices
  • Microfluidics
  • Active devices
  • Hermetic/Biocompatible coatings

Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) is an advanced etch technique that allows for excellent depth control on shallow features. As device feature size reduces further and further ALE is required to achieve the accuracy required for peak performance.

Plasma-based atomic layer etching is a cyclical etching process of gas dosing and ion bombardment that removes material layer by layer and has the potential to remove single atomic layers with very low damage.

Key Benefits of ALE

• Smooth etch surfaces
• High selectivity
• Low damage etching with low ion energies
• Precise control and high accuracy of etching depth
• Excellent uniformity
• Minimal aspect ratio dependence

Applications

• MEMS & Sensors
• Optoelectronics
• Discrete power devices
• 2D materials

Processes

• III-V etch processes
• Solid-state lasers with InP etching
• VCSEL GaAs/AlGaAs etch
• RF device low damage GaN etch
• Silicon bosch and cryo-etch processes
• SiO2 and quartz etch