German company orders AIXTRON Tricent ALD and AVD modules
AIXTRON AG has announce the receipt of an order for two Tricent deposition modules by the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany in the fourth quarter of 2006. The systems will be acquired within the framework of a BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – the Federal Ministry of Education and Research) funded project.Both Tricent systems will be used to develop advanced thin film processes for CMOS transistor gate stacks and silicon nanowire structures.
As a further part of the process and material development work AIXTRON and Forschungszentrum Juelich will conclude a cooperation and demonstration laboratory agreement.
An AIXTRON Tricent ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) module will be used to deposit alternative high-k dielectric films, and an AIXTRON Tricent AVD (Atomic Vapor Deposition) module will deposit metallic/metal nitride electrode films. Both modules will be added to the automated 200/300 mm wafer handling platform which is already equipped with an AIXTRON Tricent CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) module for SiGe processing.
Prof. Dr. Siegfried Mantl of the Institute of Bio- and Nano-Systems (IBN) at the Forschungszentrum Juelich comments: "New advanced materials are key for faster transistors, which are required for the information technology of tomorrow. The actual BMBF funding for the Forschungszentrum Juelich is aimed to strengthen our research on silicon, in particular in view of innovative silicon based nano-electronics. Exceptionally promising is the so called strained silicon on insulator (SSOI) technology, one of the Juelich developments. The integration of the new AIXTRON modules onto the cluster tool allows the synthesis of new materials on the atomic scale. We will be capable to grow highly uniform high-k dielectric films down to a few atomic layers on large area structured wafers. Combined with the strained silicon technology and the thin film deposition of metal nitride electrodes we will implement an enabling technology for the development of powerful nano-transistors."
The application oriented research is principally focused on Information Technologies and in particular on thin films deposition and nanoelectronic device development.
