In its short 50 years of existence, the history of ALD has been of great interest, being heavily researched and documented in the last decade. One can follow the story from many lenses: one in particular is to view the technology’s development is through an equipment perspective. Each milestone in process technology was accompanied and enabled by new ALD tools. Without innovative equipment design, we would not have the vast ALD ecosystem we do today. Via patents and literature, this ALDeep Dive will journey the evolution of the ALD reactor. It starts from Tuomo Suntola’s original reactor and IP, moves through the early days of commercial reactors, explore the introduction of plasma, powder and spatial tools, and wrap up with today’s equipment landscape and thoughts on the personal aspect of ALD reactors. 

In this episode: 

00:00 – Intro 
01:33 – Suntola’s 1^st Reactor 
03:15 – Suntola’s Patented Configurations 
07:38 – The First Commercial Reactor 
10:50 – Plasma, Please 
15:20 – Powder ALD Reactors 
20:37 – Reintroduction of Spatial ALD 
24:10 – Today’s ALD Tool Landscape 
25:43 – Concluding Thoughts 

Important Papers & Patents:

Chem. Vap. Dep. 2014, 20, 10-11-12, 332-344 

T. Suntola, J. Antson, International patent, FIN 52359, US 4 058 430, priority Nov 29, 1974, publication Nov 15, 1977. 

T. Suntola, A. Pakkala, S. Lindfors, International patent, FIN 57975, US 4 413 022, priority Feb 28, 1979, publication Nov 1, 1983. 

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol.29, No.5, Sep/Oct 2011 

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 25 (5) Sep/Oct 2007 

Applied Physics Letters 92, 192101 (2008) 

Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 30, 021502 (2012)