Finland based Picosun Group’s PicoArmour will enable to achieve corrosion protection more efficiently compared with the industry solutions commonly used today. The company has pending patent rights for an ALD enabled corrosion protection solution against plasma etch. The solution can bring benefits in semiconductor fabrication processes in terms of throughput, film uniformity and conformity.
Plasma etching is a necessary step in wafer fabrication process, which uses etching chemicals to etch the tools itself. To reduce the tool damage during the process is to apply a corrosion-resistant coating to the etch tool used. For instance PVD or spray coating with Y2O3 compared to using only Y2O3.
PicoArmour enables an up to five times faster and a more cost-effective way of producing the coating, and can be five times more durable compared to AI2O3. PicoArmour also increases the maintenance internal of etch tools which ultimately results in reduction of manufacturing costs.
“Picosun’s approach with PicoArmourTM is to combine the highly-etch-resistant Y2O3 ALD process with more robust ALD processes. A high performance ALD corrosion barrier combining the speed and convenience of Al2O3 process with the durability of Y2O3 can be achieved by carefully controlling the film composition. With ALD, the protective effect can be achieved with thinner films, which in turn leads to material savings and a more environmentally friendly process”, states Juhana Kostamo, VP, Industrial Business Area of Picosun Group.
