The mechanistic effect over the substrate in a square type atomic layer deposition reactor

Abstract

The attractive key-enabling nanotechnology manufacturing technique of atomic layer deposition (ALD) is well-known to deposit ultra-thin, uniform, conformal and pinhole-free nano-films on complex topography. Over the years it has been used to deposit ultra-thin films in a multitude of industry applications such as microelectronics, solar cells, superconductors, fuel cells, and water purification membranes, among other applications. This study investigates the ALD process effects in the fabrication of Al2O3 thin film over the substrate. The mass fraction coverage over the substrate and deposition rate contours in a Gemstar 6 ALD reactor are examined. The analysis technique illustrates the parameter behavior over a Cartesian coordinate sector in a three-dimensional illustration. The governing laws of the conservation of mass, momentum, energy, species, and kinetic chemical reactions are analyzed numerically by ANSYS Fluent and ChemkinPro. The deposition rate profiles correlated with previous experimental findings in the literature, producing an average growth rate of 1.3 Å/cycles.