Surface-selective chemical vapor deposition of thin films can enable the fabrication of nanoscale devices by eliminating difficult patterning and etching steps. However, stray nucleation of film on the non-growth surface due to defect or impurity sites remains a challenging problem. We previously demonstrated the use of molecular growth inhibitors in copper CVD to control morphology, ranging from a smooth and continuous thin film to particles in a narrow size distribution. Here, we show that an inhibitor can also be used to afford essentially perfect selective growth. Addition of vinyltrimethylsilane (VTMS) molecules during copper CVD from the Cu(hfac)VTMS precursor reduces the growth rate of copper on copper by a factor of four, but reduces the Cu deposition on thermal SiO₂ or porous carbon doped SiO₂ to below one monolayer (area averaged). In-situ FTIR and mass spectroscopy show that the VTMS undergoes associative desorption with adsorbed Cu(hfac) intermediate on the non-growth surface, and is responsible for the surface selective deposition of copper only on the intended (metallic) substrate areas. The processing window for this method is wide in terms of VTMS pressures (> 1 mTorr), growth times (1-90 min), and substrate temperature (100-180°C).

Our laboratory seeks to develop the growth of metallic first row transition metal thin films using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The microelectronics industry is calling for the growth of metallic first row transition metal films by the ALD method for a variety of applications, including copper metallization, seed layers for copper metallization, copper/manganese alloys for self-forming copper diffusion barriers, and magnetic alloys. The ALD growth of noble metal thin films has been explored extensively in the past ten years, due to the positive electrochemical potentials of these metal ions and relative ease of reduction to the metallic state. The low temperature ALD of high purity, low resistivity Cu films has been described, but ALD routes to the other metallic first row transition metal films remain poorly developed, largely because of the negative electrochemical potentials of most of the ions and a corresponding lack of powerful reducing co-reagents that can convert precursors in positive oxidation states to the metals. We will describe the synthesis, structure, and properties of a large series of new first row transition metal ALD precursors containing alkoxide ligands that combine high volatilities, high thermal stabilities, and high reactivities toward reducing agents. We will also report borane reducing agents that can react with the metal precursors to afford metallic films. Additionally, we will overview the thermal growth of metallic copper, nickel, cobalt, iron, manganese, and chromium thin films from these new precursors. Importantly, the growth of these metals is highly selective for noble metal substrates, such as ruthenium, palladium, and platinum. The noble metal substrates appear to activate the borane reducing agents, thus enabling selective metal growth. Chemical insights into the selective growth will be presented.

The ability to process silicon nitride and oxide films and chemically functionalize their surfaces by wet chemical methods is critical for selective deposition. The nature of HF-etched silicon nitride surface is complex and somewhat controversial. We have therefore performed an extensive study of HF etching of both Si₃N₄ and SiO₂ surfaces, combining spectroscopic techniques (Infrared absorption, X-ray photoemission, Low energy ion scattering), imaging (atomic force microscopy) and contact angle measurements with first principles calculations, as a function of HF concentration. We have also performed post-treatment in cold and hot water, and chemical functionalization with a range of organic molecules to help determine the chemical nature of the HF-etched surfaces.

The nature of silicon nitride surfaces is complex. We find that immediate rinsing in deionized water after HF wet-chemical etching yields smooth silicon nitride surfaces with clear evidence for Si-F surface termination. Low energy ion scattering experiments and XPS measurement as a function of gentle sputtering with Gas cluster ion beams (GCIB) confirm that the F is all located at the surface (i.e. not distributed into the bulk), and in the form of Si-F with high temperature stability (up to 600 ^oC in ultra-high vacuum). Hydrolysis in water is very slow at room temperature, but can be achieved at high temperature (~90 % removal at 70 ^oC for 30 min). However, water is found to etch silicon nitride, as evidence by a loss of Si₃N₄ phonon absorption, suggesting that the removal of the surface fluorine may not only be due to surface reaction through a direct exchange mechanism via pentavalent Si intermediate, but also to the hydrolyzation of Si₃N₄ itself through back-bond chemical attack by water. In addition to F, we find that there is also surface -NH₂ species, as evidenced by IR active -NH₂ bending modes at 1550 cm^-1, which we estimate to be only ~20 % monolayer from analysis of reaction with aldehyde molecules. However, this coverage appears sufficient to protect the Si₃N₄ surface. Finally, LEIS and XPS indicate that there is oxygen at the surface, which could either be in the form of -OH or Si-O-Si. Functionalization with alkylsiloxanes reveals that ~50 % of the surface contains Si-OH. In summary, the sum of the concentrations (50 %, 20 %, 50 % in ML), i.e. exceeding 1 ML, suggests that the etched surface may be atomically rough. Overall, these findings provide a method for selective deposition by using first aldehyde reaction for Si₃N₄ functionalization, followed by silane reaction for SiO₂ functionalization.

Ferromagnetic thin films find applications in a variety of fields, such as electronics, spintronics, RF technology, energy, etc. With ever-decreasing device feature sizes, film conformity and crystalline structure become very important to determining magnetic properties. As such, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a very attractive technique for magnetic film deposition as it ensures atomic level conformity. Since ALD film growth necessarily involves a film nucleation step, it is possible to engineer the surface energy of the substrate to cause preferential wetting and nucleation in only desired areas, resulting in area selective ALD (AS-ALD). Unlike conventional photolithography-based fabrication, a bottom-up patterning approach could eliminate the need for etch steps, reducing the cost of fabrication and overcoming scaling limitations in manufacturing devices. This work investigates the selective deposition of cobalt oxide via ALD that is subsequently reduced to carbon-free cobalt metal for use as the free magnetic layer within the magnetic tunnel junction of spin-transfer torque random access memory.

Alkylchlorosilanes and poly(trimethylsilylstyrene) are utilized to block water and cobalt bis(N-tert butyl, N'-ethylpropionamidinate) from an oxide substrate, such as silicon dioxide, hafnium dioxide and magnesium oxide, ensuring selective deposition of CoO films. Poly(trimethylsilylstyrene) is the half of a lamellar forming diblock copolymer that remains after self-assembly and feature development. The alkylchlorosilanes can be blanket deposited through the vapor phase or stamped onto the oxide surface using a poly(dimethylsiloxane) stamp. Cobalt oxide ALD proceeds on the exposed oxide surface. Strontium and Al are deposited atop the CoO films to scavenge oxygen during thermal annealing to yield cobalt metal films. Alternatively, reducing gases such as CO and H₂ can be employed as an oxygen sink during thermal reduction of CoO to Co metal. Finally, we demonstrate control over the tunability of the coercivity of the resultant films by controlling the reduction conditions.

Over many past years, area-selective atomic layer deposition (AS-ALD) has been developed for fabricating 3D nanostructures. ALD is a method to deposit thin films by self-limiting surface reactions between supplied gaseous precursors. Since ALD is a surface sensitive deposition technique, surface modification of substrate renders the deposition of films to be area-selective. Most previous studies on AS-ALD have utilized self-assembled monolayer (SAM), which inhibits the chemical reaction between substrate and precursors, so that the film cannot grow on SAM-coated area. AS-ALD has been studied on various materials, such as TiO₂, ZnO, and HfO₂. Although Al₂O₃ has been widely used for ALD, there is no experimental report on AS-ALD Al₂O₃ by using SAM. Rather, a previous report on the calculation of surface reactions between TMA and SAM by density functional theory (DFT) has been presented[1]. That paper describes that CH -terminated SAM shows no thermodynamic driving force for the reaction between them, leading to AS-ALD Al₂O₃ by using TMA.

In this work, we systematically investigated AS-ALD of Al₂O₃ on SAM in various conditions, such as SAM coating methods, the kinds of SAM and substrate, and ALD process parameters. Addressing previous calculation report, Al₂O₃ was deposited on CH₃-terminated SAM, octadecyltrichlorosilane (ODTS) and octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA).

However, we observed Al₂O₃ layers were formed on SAM coated SiO₂ and Ti substrate, which is inconsistent with previous report. To clarify, we investigated ALD Al₂O₃ on SAM coated substrate by using various analytic techniques such as contact angle measurement, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray-reflectometry (XRR), and α-scanning. We observed TMA was physisorbed on CH₃-terminated SAM, leading to Al₂O₃ deposition. Alternatively, we moved to our research toward the change of SAM coating methods, dipping and stamping, to lift both Al₂O₃ and underneath SAM coating off. Since stamping method is a faster process than dipping one, so that SAM by stamping might remain randomly distributed as forming weak bonding between SAMs and substrate. Moreover, we chose ODPA as a SAM due to its poor adsorption on SiO₂. We observed that both Al₂O₃ and its underneath ODPA stamped on SiO₂ were lifted-off from the substrate, resulting in area-selective Al₂O₃ pattern. This result opens a new way to patterning techniques for many areas of technology.

[1] Xu et al./ Chem. Mater. 2004, 16, 646-653