Method of growing electrical conductors
AssigneeASM International N.V.
InventorsJuhana Kostamo, Pekka J. Soininen, Kai-Erik Elers, Suvi Haukka
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Abstract
A method for forming a conductive thin film includes depositing a metal oxide thin film on a substrate by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. The method further includes at least partially reducing the metal oxide thin film by exposing the metal oxide thin film to a reducing agent, thereby forming a seed layer. In one arrangement, the reducing agent comprises one or more organic compounds that contain at least one functional group selected from the group consisting of —OH, —CHO, and —COOH. In another arrangement, the reducing agent comprises an electric current.
Claims15
A method of depositing a noble metal oxide on a substrate in a reaction chamber by a plurality of atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycles, each cycle consisting of:
- contacting the substrate with a vapor-phase pulse of a first noble metal source chemical, wherein the first source chemical adsorbs no more than one monolayer of a noble metal species on the substrate;
- purging the reaction chamber of excess first source chemical;
- contacting the substrate with a vapor-phase pulse of a second oxygen source chemical comprising ozone, wherein the second source chemical oxidizes the noble metal species on the substrate into a noble metal oxide;
- and
- purging the reaction chamber of excess second source chemical, wherein the noble metal oxide is electrically conductive and has a resistivity of less than about 300 μΩ-cm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.