Development of atomic layer deposition precursors

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Computer processing power, processing speed, and memory requirements have increased dramatically in the last ten years. This is due to the ability to construct smaller and higher quality microelectronic devices. In order to maintain this improvement in microelectronics performance, devices must continue to decrease in size while maintaining or improving the quality of the devices. Control over device creation and thus device quality has been greatly enhanced by thin film deposition techniques. The ability to deposit very thin, extremely uniform, and highly reproducible films is a necessity in microelectronic device fabrication. One of the main techniques used in microchip manufacturing today is chemical vapour deposition (CVD), where a vapour of a precursor compound is allowed to thermally react at a substrate surface to deposit a target material while releasing volatile, non-reactive side products. This method has several advantages, the foremost being the deposition of uniform films on complex geometries. The major drawbacks of this technique are inclusion of impurities in the growing film, and control of film thickness, particularly for nanoscale thicknesses. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an innovation of CVD where the initial precursor does not thermally decompose on the substrate. The principal benefit of ALD is the ability to grow films one atom layer at a time. This technique is presently being integrated into microelectronics production to form very thin (~4 atoms in thickness) oxide films in microelectronic transistors. Although control of the thickness of a film is of paramount importance, control of the area of deposition will allow definable, nanoscale features to be formed. This research project proposes to design deposition precursors that will selectively deposit specific target films. The ability to control nanoscale thicknesses of a variety of target films will provide a versatile and powerful method to enable key research and development sectors such as nanotechnology, photonics and microelectronics. Research in this area will develop the necessary highly qualified personnel to integrate ALD technology into Canadian research and industry