How Does Atomic Layer Deposition Work?

Atomic layer deposition is a thin-film technology that allows for highly competitive products. Atomic layer deposition is a strong resource for improved nanotechnology research. Characteristic applications of Atomic layer deposition contain an obligation to produce very accurate nanometer-free and conformed thin films on any geometry and shape.

For today’s companies, Optimal Chemical’s ALD Precursors Manufacturing offers the needed tools to increase growth by means of production equipment, affordable cost of ownership, innovative and new applications you can count on.

Technology Basis
Atomic Layer Deposition provides material and coating features that either cannot be achieved at all or cannot be achieved cost-efficiently with existing techniques, as a thin coating method, offers:
● Pinhole-free films for surface passivation and superior barriers
● Accurate control of the film’s thickness at the precise nanometer scale
● A scalable and highly repeatable process
● New functional and engineered structures and materials, such as nanolaminates
● Conformal coating of batches

Atomic Layer Deposition Coating Process
Atomic Layer Deposition is focused on surface-controlled thin film deposition. In the coating procedure, two or more gaseous precursors or chemical vapors react serially on the substrate surface, creating a strong, thin film.

Most Atomic Layer Deposition coating systems use a flow-through traveling wave setup. Here a slow carrier gas flows through the system. After that, precursors are introduced as slow pulses into this carrier flow. This flow takes the precursor pulses as serial waves through the reaction cavity, accompanied by a pumping line, a filtering system, and, lastly, a vacuum pump.

Process and Coating Features

1. Great Adhesion: Precursor’s chemisorption with the surface gives great adhesion
2. Saturation: Reactions of surfaces that are self-terminating enable automatic processing. It also abolishes the need for continuous operator attendance and over-accurate dosing.
3. Sequential: Digital-like serial growth provides great precision without the need for operator attendance or extensive in situ.
4. Surface-controlled Reactions: This enables totally conformal coatings, irrespective of whether or not the substrate is a powder, tubular, porous, dense, or otherwise intricate in shape.
5. Exact and Repeatable: During a single Atomic Layer Deposition, film growth thickness is process-specific. However, it is usually about 1 Å.
6. Smooth, Dense, and Thick: Atomic Layer Deposition enables depositing layers lower than 1 nm in thickness. Coatings as thin as 0.8 nm are presently used in some industrial applications.
7. High Capacity: The surface-controlled growth characteristic enables capacity extension for both large surfaces and large batches.
8. Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition: Atomic Layer Deposition coating can also be altered by introducing plasma to the deposition cycle, for example, to allow for coating with certain low-temperature nitrides, low-temperature oxides, and metals.
9. Roll-to-Roll and Continuous Atomic Layer Deposition: This opens the door for many new Atomic Layer Deposition applications in the flexible electronics industry.
10. Atomic Layer Deposition on Powders and Particles: Combining particulate substrates and the conformal coating creates totally new opportunities to alter the diffusion properties of battery materials and more.

Optima Chemical is a leading worldwide supplier of specialty chemicals, custom chemical manufacturing, and toll services. We also manufacture ALD Precursors. Contact us today for more info.