Manufacturing with Light - photochemical ALD to manufacture functional thin films

本项目旨在开发一种新型光化学ALD制造技术。传统的原子层沉积已经广泛应用于显示和微电子工业。这是一种热化学过程，将两种前体试剂循环脉冲到加热的工件上。衬底温度和化学反应能量的共同作用推动这一过程，使薄膜一层一层地沉积。由于该过程发生在表面，高度均匀和保形层可以沉积在高纵横比或多孔材料上，并具有超精确的厚度控制。在本项目中，我们建议开发一种紫外光化学ALD工艺。这样做的目的是为了减少过程对热能的依赖。我们将使用利物浦现有的ALD反应器，并将一个可切换的UV灯源纳入其中。这将被配置，以便它可以暴露单独的气相前体或在表面作为吸附剂。输出的波长将被调谐以光化学方式分解前驱体以形成薄膜。在项目的第二阶段，我们将研究ALD薄膜的选择性沉积或“书写”。我们将使用光刻板的近场方法，其次通过将TI DLP芯片集成到工件上方的光学序列中来实现这一点。这两种方法都将使我们能够选择性地暴露表面上的吸附物，并探索ALD薄膜图像化的前景。如果成功，该项目将建立一种新的工艺技术的可行性，将ALD扩展到其他工业部门，如卷对卷屏障层；塑料电子产品;有机-无机光伏；生物医学仪器等。

The purpose of this project is to develop a novel photochemical ALD manufacturing technology. Conventional atomic layer deposition is already widely used in the displays and microelectronics industries. It is a thermo-chemical process where two precursor reagents are pulsed in cycles onto a heated work piece. The combination of the substrate temperature and the chemical reaction energy drive the process forward to deposit the thin film layer by layer. Because the process occurs on the surface, highly uniform and conformal layers can be deposited onto high-aspect ratio or porous materials with ultra-precise thickness control. In this project, we propose to develop a UV photochemical ALD process. The purpose of this is to reduce the dependence of the process on thermal energy. We will use an existing ALD reactor at Liverpool and incorporate into it a switchable UV lamp source. This will be configured so that it can expose the separate gas-phase precursors or on the surface as adsorbates. The wavelength of the output will be tuned to photo-chemically decompose the precursors to form the film. In the second stage of the project we will investigate selective deposition or 'writing' of ALD films. We'll do this using a near field approach with a lithographic plate and secondly by incorporating a TI DLP chip into the optical train just above the work piece. Both of these approaches will enable us to expose adsorbates on the surface selectively and explore the prospect of patterning ALD films. If successful, the project establish the feasibility of a new process technology to extend ALD the other industry sectors, such as roll-to-roll barrier layers; plastic electronics; organic - inorganic PV; biomedical instruments and others.