CVD-, ALD- und High-Temperature Processes

Fraunhofer ENAS and the Center for Microtechnologies at Chemnitz University of Technology own various equipment for chemical-based thin layer deposition processes, i.e., for the chemical vapor deposition (CVD), the atomic layer deposition (ALD) and high-temperature processes.

The CVD method is used for important baseline processes for the formation of thin dielectrics or metallic layers in the area of the back-end of line (BEOL) manufacturing, especially for the 3D integration of structures with high aspect ratios.

In addition to the CVD processes, ALD processes as derivative methods are used and further developed at the research institution. ALD processes are suitable for the deposition of ultrathin layers of (high-k) dielectrics, metal oxides and metals. The main characteristic of ALD processes is the high conformity and the resulting excellent edge coverage even in aspect ratio features.

A further important part of many process sequences in semiconductor production are the high-temperature processes. For example, they are applied for the formation of homogeneous oxide layers by thermal oxidation. Furthermore, in post-cure and annealing procedures with specific temperature regimes and choice of gases defects can be cured, tensions are reduced, crystal structure and crystallinity are affected, or bond processes are supported.