Untersuchungen zur Oberflächenchemie der Atomlagenabscheidung und deren Einfluss auf die Effizienz von Prozessen

This dissertation is divided into an experimental part and a theoretical part. The experimental part describes the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of TiO2 and HfO2. TDMAT and Cp*Ti(OMe)3 were used as titanium precursors, while TEMAHf was used as the hafnium precursor. Ozone was used as the oxygen source. The self limiting film growth and the temperature window of these ALD processes were investigated. The reaction by-products of the Cp*Ti(OMe)3/O3 process were identified by quadrupol mass spectrometry (QMS). The QMS analysis of the TEMAHf/O3 process revealed that water is formed during the metal precursor pulse. The theoretical part of this thesis describes the development of models and numerical methods to simulate the ALD as a whole. First of all, a model for the adsorption of precursor molecules by planar substrates was developed. This model was extended to describe the adsorption of precursor molecules inside a cylindrical hole with an aspect ratio of 20, 40 and 80. The adsorption of precursor molecules is dominated by the absolute sticking coefficient (SC), i.e., the reactivity of the precursor molecules. From the numerical model the saturation profiles along the wall of a cylindrical hole can be determined. From the comparison of the simulated profile with an experimentally determined thickness profile the SC can be determined. This method was used to determine the SC of the precursors examined in the experimental part. The SC of TEMAHf increases exponentially with the substrate temperature. A discrete particle method (DSMC) was used to derive a statistical description of the gas kinetics inside an ALD reactor. Combining the statistical description of the gas transport and the numerical models of the adsorption, it is possible to simulate the ALD for any combination of reactor, substrate and SC. It is possible to distinguish the contribution of the reactor geometry, the process parameters and the process chemistry (SC) to the process efficiency. Therefore, the ALD reactor geometry can be optimized independently of the process chemistry. This method was used to study a shower head ALD reactor. The reactor geometry, the composition of the gas at the inlet and the position of the inlet nozzles was varied in order to find more efficient ALD reactors. The efficiency of the reference geometry is limited by the inlet nozzles close to the exhaust and the decrease of the pressure on the substrate near the exhaust. The efficiency of ALD processes with different SCs was simulated for planar and structured substrates with a diameter of 300 mm and 450 mm