Mechanistic study of atomic layer deposition of AlxSiyO thin film via in-situ FTIR spectroscopy

Abstract

A study of surface reaction mechanism on atomic layer deposition (ALD) of aluminum silicate (AlxSiyO) was conducted with trimethylaluminum (TMA) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as precursors and H2O as the oxidant. In-situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was utilized to elucidate the underlying surface mechanism that enables the deposition of AlxSiyO by ALD. In-situ FTIR study revealed that ineffective hydroxylation of the surface ethoxy (–OCH2CH3) groups prohibits ALD of SiO2 by TEOS/H2O. In contrast, effective desorption of the surface ethoxy group was observed in TEOS/H2O/TMA/H2O chemistry. The presence of Al-OH* group in vicinity of partially hydroxylated ethoxy (–OCH2CH3) group was found to propagate disproportionation reaction, which results in ALD of AlxSiyO. The maximum thickness from incorporation of SiOx from alternating exposures of TEOS/H2O chemistry in AlxSiyO was found to be ∼2 Å, confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Aug 27, 2015
Source ID
10.1116/1.4927318

Entities

People

  • Jane P. Chang
  • Jea Cho
  • Taeseung Kim
  • Trevor Seegmiller

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • National Science Foundation
  • Office of Naval Research
  • University of California, Los Angeles

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Organic Chemistry
  • Thin Film Deposition Science.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene