Deposition
Adding thin films of material.
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At a glance
Inputs
- Wafer
- Precursor gases or sputter targets
- Vacuum / controlled ambient
Outputs
- Wafer with a new thin film of defined thickness and composition
What is it?
Adding thin films of conductors, insulators, or semiconductors onto the wafer surface — by chemical vapour deposition (CVD), physical vapour deposition (PVD), or atomic-layer deposition (ALD).
Why is it needed?
Every layer of a chip — dielectrics, barrier metals, gate materials — is built by deposition. Film thickness and conformality directly set device dimensions and reliability.
How does it work?
CVD reacts gas-phase precursors on the hot wafer to grow a film; PVD (sputtering/evaporation) physically transports atoms from a target to the wafer; ALD grows films one atomic layer at a time for ultimate thickness control.
The method is chosen for the material, the required conformality (coverage of steep features), and thickness precision.
Critical parameters
- Film thickness
- Uniformity
- Conformality / step coverage
- Stress
- Composition
Typical defects
- Voids and seams
- Poor step coverage
- Particle inclusion
- Film stress cracking
Equipment involved
- CVD reactors
- PVD sputtering tools
- ALD reactors
Materials involved
- Precursor gases
- Sputter targets (e.g. Ti, Ta, Cu)
- Dielectric sources
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