ALD Technology - Present and Future Challenges

Abstract

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is one of the established techniques among the other chemical and physical deposition techniques of today. There is still, however, a number of challenges for ALD to meet regarding both manufacturing and growth chemistry. The main manufacturing obstacle is the throughput which inherently is low for ALD. In the chemistry side the precursor development plays a very important role together with the understanding of which ALD technique, thermal or plasma enhanced (PE), or even combined (PE)ALD/CVD to use for which application. In the future there will be an increasing need for the development of new ALD materials and for the detailed understanding of the growth of thin films and nanostructures not only on inorganic but also on organic surfaces.