Design of Selective Deposition Processes For Nanoscale Electronic Devices

A technical paper titled “Quantified Uniformity and Selectivity of TiO₂ Films in 45-nm Half Pitch Patterns Using Area-Selective Deposition Supercycles” was published by researchers at IMEC, North Carolina State University, and KU Leuven.

Abstract:

“Area-selective deposition (ASD) shows great promise for sub-10 nm manufacturing in nanoelectronics, but significant challenges remain in scaling to ultrasmall dimensions and understanding feature-dependent nonuniformity and selectivity loss. This work addresses these problems by simultaneously quantifying uniformity and selectivity for passivation/deposition/etch supercycles in 45 nm half-pitch TiN/SiO₂ line/space patterns. This work employs three selective processes that are uniquely suited for supercycle processing: dimethylamino-trimethylsilane (DMA-TMS) inhibition, TiO₂ atomic layer deposition (ALD), and HBr/BCl₃ plasma etch. The DMA-TMS inhibition selectively passivates the SiO₂ nongrowth surface without affecting deposition on the TiN and TiO₂ growth surfaces. The plasma etch removes TiO₂ defect particles at a faster rate than the conformal TiO₂ film or SiO₂ lines. Using three supercycles of this process, this work demonstrates 8 nm of TiO₂ with 88% uniformity and ≈100% selectivity according to transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a 2×improvement in film thickness from previous reports in similar nanoscale patterns. Integrated consideration of uniformity and selectivity at specific feature scales will facilitate the effective design of selective deposition processes for nanoscale electronic devices.”

Find the technical paper here. Published: June 2023.

Nye, Rachel A., Kaat Van Dongen, Jean‐François de Marneffe, Gregory N. Parsons, and Annelies Delabie. “Quantified Uniformity and Selectivity of TiO2 Films in 45‐nm Half Pitch Patterns Using Area‐Selective Deposition Supercycles.” Advanced Materials Interfaces: 2300163.

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