Deposition facility

Atomic layer deposition to nm scale

Evaporation and sputter deposition

More Information

About the Deposition facility

We provide a range of deposition technologies that can be used in fabrication:

chemical vapour deposition systems for the growth of carbon nanotubes, semiconductor nanowires and quantum dots
ultra-thin film deposition by epitaxy and atomic layer deposition (ALD) for a range of IV/IV materials (Si, Ge, SiGe), as well as novel materials such as metal oxides

Chemical vapour deposition

We offer two types of chemical vapour deposition:

low pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) where the reactants are gases and energy is provided by heating the substrate to a high temperature (typically 500-700C)
plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) where the reactants are gases and energy is provided partly by heating the substrate to a high temperature (typically 400C or below) and partly by the plasma.

Ultra-thin film deposition

We offer two methods of ultra-thin film deposition:

silicon epitaxy is the growth of a layer of single-crystal silicon on top of a single-crystal silicon substrate
atomic layer deposition is a special type of deposition that allows sub-monolayer (<1nm) films to be deposited.

The deposition capabilities are part of our clean rooms at the nanofabrication centre.

Technical specification

Tempress LPCVD poly furnace

The poly furnace can be used to deposit undoped amorphous and polycrystalline silicon. It provides:

deposition temperatures of around 625C to deposit polycrystalline silicon and 540C to deposit amorphous silicon
high wafer throughput
accepts wafers up to 200mm in diameter.

Tempress LPCVD nitride furnace

The nitride furnace can be used to deposit silicon nitride. It offers:

deposition temperature of around 740C
plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition for lower temperatures
very high wafer throughput
accepts wafers up to 200mm in diameter.

OPT Plasmalab system 100 PECVD

Our PECVD system is used to deposit amorphous and polycrystalline silicon, germanium and silicon-germanium. The system offers:

a deposition temperature up to 650C
deposition rate for amorphous silicon of >25nm/min and for polysilicon of >40nm/min.
accepts wafers up to 200mm in diameter
can do depositions on small pieces of silicon placed on a larger wafer

OPT Plasmalab system 100 liquid source PECVD

Our liquid source system is used to deposit silicon dioxide, silicon nitride and rare earth doped oxides. This machine offers:

two liquid precursors, one for TEOS and one for rare earth doped oxides.
a low frequency and high frequency (RF) plasma source
accepts wafers up to 200mm in diameter
can do depositions on small pieces of silicon placed on a larger wafer.

OPT Nanofab 1000 agile

Our nanofab system is used to deposit carbon nanotubes and silicon, silicon-germanium and germanium nanowires. The machine offers:

n-type (phosphorus) or p-type (boron) doping
deposition temperature up to 1000C
accepts wafers up to 200mm in diameter
can do depositions on small pieces of silicon placed on a larger wafer.

OPT FlexAl RPX

Our RPX system is equipped with four liquid precursor modules and can deposit up to four different ALD layers in the same run. It can be used to deposit HfO2, TiN, ZnO and Al2O3 using TEMAH, TiCl4, DEZ and TMA precursors respectively. The system offers:

deposition rate is typically between 0.2 and 1.5 angstrom per cycle
accepts wafers up to 200mm in diameter and can do depositions on small pieces of silicon placed on a larger wafer.

ASM Epsilon epitaxy system

Our epitaxy system can be used to grow epitaxial silicon layers, boron and phosphorus marker layers, compressively strained silicon-germanium layers on a silicon substrate, tensile strained silicon layers on a relaxed silicon-germanium buffer, silicon-germanium multi quantum wells and germanium quantum dots.