Modified PEALD deposition for enhanced Ta2O5 growth kinetics
ALD in Microelectronic. Applications, Equipments and Productivity

As we have seen, the PEALD technique enables higher deposition rates than conventional ALD. In addition, PEALD deposition can be achieved using a second method, which involves continuously feeding plasma gas (e.g. oxygen) and argon into the reactor (figure 18), and alternating injections of precursor (diluted in argon) and radio-frequency pulses. For this method, a precursor should be used which does not react in the gas phase with atomic oxygen in the temperature range under consideration. The use of a continuous flow increases purging efficiency after precursor and oxidant injection. Indeed, in the case of a standard ALD/PEALD sequence (figure 18), closing the reagent injection valve followed by...