Oxidative Removal of Self-Assembled Monolayers for Selective Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract

Using atomic force microscopy (AFM) lithography and self-assembled monolayer (SAM), selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) of ZrO2 was performed to fabricate nanostructures. SAM layer was used for a chemical mask for ZrO2 ALD process and AFM lithography for a nano-scale patterning method. AFM anodic oxidation process was applied to create oxide patterns on ODTS-coated silicon substrates. Subsequent HF etching locally removes oxide, exposing silicon layer underneath. After 100 cycles of ZrO2 ALD process and an oxygen plasma etching, ZrO2 ALD nanostructure of 4~7 nm in height and ~130 nm in line width were fabricated. A growth rate of 0.4~0.7 Aå per cycle is estimated from the AFM scanning at each step, which is slightly less than the typical ALD growth rates of ZrO2.