Top injection reactor tool with in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry for growth and characterization of ALD thin films

Ta-N based thin films were grown by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) with an alternating supply of the reactant source TBTDET (tert-butylimidotris(diethylamido)tantalum) and NH"3 (ammonia). The films were deposited using a newly designed and constructed atomic layer deposition prototype tool combined with several in situ metrology. It was observed that thin films were successfully deposited on a 300mm Wafer with a saturated growth rate of approximately 0.55A/cycle at 270^oC. The as deposited films resulted in the formation of Ta(C)N consisting of 38at% Ta, 32at% N and 10at% C. With in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) the growing behaviour of the film was investigated and compared to atomic force microscopy (AFM) images.