Product News

PEALD — Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a layer-by-layer deposition process of very thin films with conformal coating on 3D structures. Precise control of thickness and film properties is facilitated by adding precursors in separate steps into the vacuum chamber during process cycle. Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PEALD) is an advanced method of extending the capabilities of ALD by applying radical gas species rather than water as oxidizer during the deposition process.

PEALD_01Based on many years of experience in developing and manufacturing PECVD and ICPECVD equipment, including the proprietary planar triple spiral antenna ICP source, SENTECH proudly announces the launch of its first PEALD system. The new ALD system enables both thermal and plasma assisted operation and deposition monitoring using SENTECH ellipsometers. SENTECH offers leading edge ultra-fast in-situ ellipsometers for monitoring layer-by-layer film growth applying laser ellipsometry as well as wide range spectroscopic ellipsometry.

PEALD_02The first PEALD system was already set in operation at the TU Braunschweig for the deposition of extremely uniform and dense thin oxide films like Al2O3 and ZnO. For the deposition of Al2O3, TMA (C3H9Al) and plasma generated atomic oxygen ‘O’ were utilized at substrate temperatures from 80 °C to 200 °C.

The PEALD films exhibit excellent thickness uniformity and very small variation of the refractive index measured with SENTECH spectroscopic ellipsometers. 2D uniformity plots are shown on the right.

September 2011

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SenSol Haze for quality control of TCO films in PV manufacturing

SenSol Haze

SENTECH SenSol Haze is designed for quality control of transparent conductive oxide films in PV manufacturing of thin film solar cells. It is a TCO inspection tool that offers uniformity mapping of film thickness and spectrally resolved Haze H(λ) on glass sheets of all standard glass sizes. Additional sensors for the measurement of sheet resistance, of composition, of optical constants like refractive index, absorption, and band gap are available.

Oerlikon Solar, Switzerland, a leading provider of thin film PV manufacturing equipment for the mass production of thin film silicon solar modules, is one of our key reference customers of the SenSol H. Oerlikon Solar uses the SenSol H for mapping the spectrally resolved haze and thickness of TCO layers on glass panels to drastically reduce the system service downtime. Oerlikon Solar recommends the SenSol H as quality control tool to its international customers.

The SenSol H comprises the computer-controlled conveyor transport system and the sensor platform for haze, film thickness, and other sensors. The special design of the system allows measurements at every position of the glass sheet, especially at the edges. Glass sheets can be loaded and unloaded manually or by a robot.

Please contact us for more information.

July 2011

SENTECH developed new cluster tool

SI 500 RIE

SENTECH has developed a two chamber cluster tool for etching of metals, dielectrics, and silicon. The system comes with cassette station for automated batch processing and manual loadlock for single wafer etching. The hexagon transfer chamber allows an installation where only cassette station and loadlock extend into the clean room. Chlorine and fluorine etching processes are separated from each other by the two etching modules. The substrate electrode temperature can be chosen between -30 °C and 200 °C. The system is designed for processing of up to 8 inch wafers and especially suited for applications in research and small scale production (picture shows preparation for 4 inch wafers).

Please contact us for more information.

January 2011

IR spectroscopic ellipsometer SENDIRA

SENDIRA_200x111

SENTECH infrared spectroscopic ellipsometer SENDIRA works with THERMO FTIR (6700). The arrangement combined the high performance IR ellipsometry with FTIR technology.

The IR ellipsometer is also available now for the new VARIAN FTIR series.

Please contact us for more information.

November 2010

RM 2000 for contactless optical reflection measurement

RM1000-2000_550px

SENTECH launched the new FTP advanced reflectometer RM 2000 with spectral range from 200 nm to 930 nm and micro spot of 100 µm. The RM 2000 is especially suited for the characterization of bulk materials, thin films, and layer stacks by optical reflection measurements. Through a spectral range extension and a reduction of the spot size, the RM 2000 is able to measure the uniformity of AR coatings, filters and composition (GaAIN) in the DUV-VIS spectral range. The instrument is supplied with SENTECH FTPadv Expert software.

Please contact us for more information.

October 2010

Depolab 200 — open lid parallel plate plasma deposition system

SENTECH Depolab 200 is our newest system for plasma deposition of dielectric films (e. g. SiOx, SiOxNy, SiNy layers) on single wafers or pieces of wafers. Direct loading of samples, substrates of up to 8 inch diameter, operation at 13.56 MHz, substrate temperature control between RT and 400 °C, optional frequency mixing and end point detection, advanced hard- and software with client server architecture including the well known Windows based SENTECH software for plasma equipment operation are key features of the new Depolab 200 system.

Please contact us for more information.

August 2010

SenSol mapping tool for large glass substrates in PV

SenSol V

SENTECH announces the installation of a SenSol measurement system for the analysis of thin films of thin film solar cells. The multiple sensor platform of the SenSol can accommodate sensors for sheet resistance measurement (4 PP sensor, eddy current sensor, optical sensor), for haze measurement, and for film thickness measurement (reflection and transmission mode).

Please contact us for more information.

January 2009

SENDURO for 300 mm wafers

SENDURO300-mit-monitor_200x212

SENTECH delivers the first SENDURO measurement system for 300 mm silicon wafer applications. The system allows the automated measurement of films in the thickness range between a few Angstrom and more than 50 µm. A robot loads the wafers automatically from a cassette station. The very fast measurement of each point allows to analyse the uniformity of coatings on 300 mm wafers by a multipoint measurement.

Please contact us if you want to get more information or a demonstration.

July 2008