• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.78-78
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• 2013

Recently, many platinoid metals like platinum and ruthenium have been used as an electrode of microelectronic devices because of their low resistivity and high work-function. However the material cost of Ru is very expensive and it usually takes long initial nucleation time on SiO2 during chemical deposition. Therefore many researchers have focused on how to enhance the initial growth rate on SiO2 surface. There are two methods to deposit Ru film with atomic layer deposition (ALD); the one is thermal ALD using dilute oxygen gas as a reactant, and the other is plasma enhanced ALD (PEALD) using NH3 plasma as a reactant. Generally, the film roughness of Ru film deposited by PEALD is smoother than that deposited by thermal ALD. However, the plasma is not favorable in the application of high aspect ratio structure. In this study, we used a bis(ethylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium [Ru(EtCp)2] as a metal organic precursor for both thermal and plasma enhanced ALDs. In order to reduce initial nucleation time, we use several methods such as Ar plasma pre-treatment for PEALD and usage of sacrificial RuO2 under layer for thermal ALD. In case of PEALD, some of surface hydroxyls were removed from SiO2 substrate during the Ar plasma treatment. And relatively high surface nitrogen concentration after first NH3 plasma exposure step in ALD process was observed with in-situ Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). This means that surface amine filled the hydroxyl removed sites by the NH3 plasma. Surface amine played a role as a reduction site but not a nucleation site. Therefore, the precursor reduction was enhanced but the adhesion property was degraded. In case of thermal ALD, a Ru film was deposited from Ru precursors on the surface of RuO2 and the RuO2 film was reduced from RuO2/SiO2 interface to Ru during the deposition. The reduction process was controlled by oxygen partial pressure in ambient. Under high oxygen partial pressure, RuO2 was deposited on RuO2/SiO2, and under medium oxygen partial pressure, RuO2 was partially reduced and oxygen concentration in RuO2 film was decreased. Under low oxygen partial pressure, finally RuO2 was disappeared and about 3% of oxygen was remained. Usually rough surface was observed with longer initial nucleation time. However, the Ru deposited with reduction of RuO2 exhibits smooth surface and was deposited quickly because the sacrificial RuO2 has no initial nucleation time on SiO2 and played a role as a buffer layer between Ru and SiO2.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.802-809
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• 2001

Electroplating is an attractive alternative deposition method for copper with the need for a conformal and conductive seed layer In addition, the Cu seed layer should be highly pure so as not to compromise the effective resistivity of the filled copper interconnect structure. This seed layer requires low electrical resistivity, low levels of impurities, smooth interface, good adhesion to the barrier metal and low thickness concurrent with coherence for ensuring void-free fill. The electrical conductivity of the surface plays an important role in formation of initial Cu nuclei, Cu nucleation is much easier on the substrate with higher electrical conductivities. It is also known that the nucleation processes of Cu are very sensitive to surface condition. In this study, copper seed layers deposited by magnetron sputtering onto a tantalum nitride barrier layer were used for electroplating copper in the forward pulsed mode. Prior to electroplating a copper film, the Cu seed layer was cleaned by plasma H$_2$ and $N_2$. In the plasma treatment exposure tome was varied from 1 to 20 min and plasma power from 20 to 140W. Effects of plasma pretreatment to Cu seed/Tantalum nitride (TaN)/borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) samples on electroplating of copper (Cu) films were investigated.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.35-39
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• 2000

The correlation between the activation volumes of wall-motion and nucleation processes in Co/Pd multilayers has been investigated. Each activation volume was estimated from the field dependence of the wall-motion speed and the nucleation rate, respectively, based on time-resolved domain patterns grabbed by a MOKE microscope system. Both the activation volumes are changed in the same manner around $0.2\sim1.1\times10^{-17}cm^3$ with changes in the multilayered structure. Interestingly, the correlation between the activation volumes is sensitive to the multilayered structure; the wall-motion activation volume is smaller than the nucleation activation volume for a sample having a smaller number of repeats and a thinner Co-layer thickness, and vice versa. The correlation is closely related with the contrasting reversal modes; the process having the smaller activation volume dominates.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.363-367
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• 2004

Recently ZnO epitaxial layers have been widely studied as a semiconductor material for optoelectronic devices. Sapphire and silicon are commonly selected as substrate materials for ZnO epitaxial growth. In this communication, we report the effect of the ECR plasma pretreatment of sapphire and silicon substrates on the nucleation in the ZnO ALE (atomic layer epitaxy). It was found that ECR plasma pretreatment reduces the incubation period of the ZnO nucleation. Oxygen ECR plasma enhances ZnO nucleation most effectively since it increases the hydroxyl group density at the substrate surface. The nucleation enhancing effect of the oxygen ECR plasma treatment is stronger on the sapphire substrate than on the silicon substrate since the saturation density of the hydroxyl group is lower at the sapphire surface than that at the silicon surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1992.11a
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• pp.28-30
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• 1992

Long incubation period of W nucleation on the TiN glue layer is a serious problem in blanket W process. In this study we investigated the dependence of W nucleation and growth rate on the preparation method of the TiN film, deposition temperature, chemistry, $SiH_4/WF_6$ ratio and sputter etching, ion implantation, and $SiH_4$ flushing pre-treatments. Incubation periods of W nucleation and deposition rates of W growth on three different TiNs are in the order of TiN>RTP-TiN> annealed TiN and TiN${\leq}$RTP-TiN${\leq}$ annealed TiN, respectively. $\beta$-W is not found on TiN substrate even for high $SiH_4/WF_6$ ratio. Sputter etching pre-treatment increases incubation period of W nucleation, while it decreases deposition rate. $SiH_4$ flushing pre-treatment decreases incubation period, but it slightly decreases deposition rate.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2004

The characteristics of interface layer and the effect of bias voltages on the nucleation density and heteroepitaxial growth of diamond films were studied in the hot filament CVD diamond process. Diamond films were deposited on a high speed steel (SKH-51) substrate by bias-assisted hot filament CVD technique with a titanium interlayer. The bias applied for enhancing the emission of electrons from the filament increased the nucleation density and achieving heteroepitaxial growth of CVD diamond. Diamond films obtained at a gas pressure of 20 torr; a bias voltage of 200 V and a substrate temperature of $700^{\circ}C$. Titanium was a suitable element as an interlayer for the diamond deposition on steel because it has high diffusivity of Fe and C as a carbide forming element.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.311-316
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• 2002

Two different approaches, namely two-step deposition process and Bias-Enhanced Nucleation (BEN) technique have been examined for deposition of high quality diamond thin film on polycrystalline Ni which has low chemical activity with the carbon neutrals provided from the $CH_4/H_2$mixtures. A two-step deposition process, consisted of pre-deposition of soot layer at lower temperatures and subsequent deposition at higher temperature condition, has been developed to deposit diamond layer directly on Ni substrate. Diamond particles were observed after deposition step at $925^{\circ}C$ for 5 hours and those particles seem to be nucleated from the soot layer pre-deposited at lower temperatures ($810^{\circ}C$). Diamond particles of a substantial size were found on Ni substrate after biasing -220 V for 10 minutes and subsequent deposition for 2 hours while no diamond particles were observed under the conditions without applied bias.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.08a
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• pp.224-227
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• 2007

The reconstruction characteristics of MgO (111) textured protective layer by over-frequency accelerated discharge in AC-PDP were investigated and correlated to the variations of electronic structures. The reconstruction process and exaggerated grain growth (EGG) were explained by defect-assisted 2-D nucleation and growth mechanism combined with charged cluster model.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.26-26
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• 2000

High quality epitaxial Y2O3 thin films were prepared on Si(111) and (001) substaretes by using ion beam assisted deposition. As a substrate, clean and chemically oxidized Si wafers were used and the effects of surface state on the film crystallinity were investigated. The crystalline quality of the films were estimated by x-ray scattering, rutherford backscattering spectroscopy/channeling, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The interaction between Y and Si atoms interfere the nucleation of Y2O3 at the initial growth stage, it could be suppressed by the interface SiO2 layer. Therefore, SiO2 layer of the 4-6 layers, which have been known for hindering the crystal growth, could rather enhance the nucleation of the Y2O3 , and the high quality epitaxial film could be grown successfully. Electrical properties of Y2O3 films on Si(001) were measured by C-V and I-V, which revealed that the oxide trap charge density of the film was 1.8$\times$10-8C/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and the breakdown field strength was about 10MV/cm.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.173-176
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• 1997

Direct metal ion beam deposition is considered to be a whole new thin film deposition technique. Unlike other conventional thin film deposition processes, the individual deposition particles carry its own ion beam energies which are directly coupled for the formation of this films. Due to the nature of ion beams, the energies can be controlled precisely and eventually can be tuned for optimizing the process. SKION's negative C- ion beam source is used to investigate the initial nucleation mechanism and growth. Strong C- ion beam energy dependence has been observed. Complete phase control of sp3 and sp3, control of the C/SiC/Si interface layer, control of crystalline and amorphous mode growth, and optimization of the physical properties for corresponding applications can be achieved.