Real-Time In Situ Parallel Detection of Elements and Molecules with TOFMS during ALD for Chemical Quality Control of Thin Films
Priebe et al.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c09544
In this study, researchers demonstrate that integration of a TOFMS (pgaTOF) in an ALD system allows for real-time detection of all process relevant species.
As a result of TOFMS integration, any process deviation from optimal or hardware malfunction can be detected at an early stage, and process parameters can be corrected immediately to ensure deposition of the intended thin film chemical composition and architecture. The pgaTOF is demonstrated to be superior for monitoring most thin film deposition processes as there are no limitations on the number of analyzed species and their type (single ions or ionized molecules), the data acquisition is fast, and non-intrusive. Furthermore, the chemical information is obtained directly, in contrast to other techniques which are time consuming and often require dedicated calibration procedures.
While this paper illustrates in situ TOFMS analysis in an ALD process, the same could apply to other deposition techniques such as:
- chemical vapor deposition and its plasma enhanced variants
- etch applications for process optimization, monitoring and control with end point detection implemented for complex interfaces such as transitions involving binary, ternary and quaternary alloys
- sources operating in pulsed modes and processes involving deposition and etch of nanolayered stacks
