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GATE DIELECTRICS

Gate dielectrics form an important field of applications for ALD. Intel has recently announced that their 45 nm generation processors will include a high-k HfO2 gate dielectric made by ALD. There are various reasons that ALD has become the method of choice (see this review): Unlike ALD, conventional evaporated films suffer from porosity and sputtering creates defects in the sensitive silicon surface layer. In addition, ALD guarantees extremely uniform and reproducible thickness, low stress, uniform stoichiometry, amorphous structure and low defect density. Besides the industrial silicon platforms, ALD has proven essential to create gate dielectrics on device substrates without native oxides, such as high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures, organic transistors, nanotubes and many more. Examples of materials include HfO2, ZrO2, Al2O3, LaAlO, GdScO3, their nanolaminates, and others.

ALD is suitable for many applications in Semiconductors and nanoelectronics including Gate Dielectrics, Gate Electrodes, Diffusion Barriers, and DRAM | Dynamic Random Access Memory. In the optical fields, ALD can be applied to Optical Dielectric Multilayer Structures / Filters, OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), Photonic Crystals and static Photonic Band Tuning, Transparent Conductors and Transparent Conducting Electrodes, TFEL or Thin Film Electroluminesence, Solar Cells, OLED Humidity Barrier, Precision Optics Coatings and Photonic Crystal Structures and Lasers. ALD is also applied to MEMS (micro electromechanical systems and Hydrophic & Anti-Stiction Layers in MEMS Devices. There are also applications of ALD in wear resistence, in coatings for blade edges and Nanocomposite Tungsten Disulphide solid lubricants. ALD is also used in nanostructures such as nanotubes & nanowires, and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tips. Other common applications of ALD are Catalysis & Catalyst Supports, Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electrodes, Nano Glue, Biocompatible Coatings for medical instruments Ferromagnetic Transition Metals & Nanotubes and Internal Tube Liners and Inert Inner Linings.