Picosun Oy, the leading supplier of advanced Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) thin film technology, provides equipment and solutions for commercial utilization of photo‐assisted ALD. Photo‐ALD enables novel ALD processes, area‐selective film deposition, low deposition temperatures, savings on precursor chemical consumption and costs, and lower environmental impact of the ALD processing.
Photo‐assisted ALD utilizes light to enable ALD film growth. Whereas in regular ALD film grows from two gaseous precursors which react on the coated surface one by one, in photo‐ALD only one chemical is needed – light takes care of the rest.
“The photo‐ALD method has been investigated only marginally this far, mostly because of the lack of proper equipment. Now, using Picosun’s photo‐ALD tools we have been able to develop this technology and related chemistry for several key ALD processes. Potential applications can be found in MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems), sensors and other advanced microelectronics (for example, selective ALD to keep the chip contact areas clean), and solar cell manufacturing,” comments Prof. Mikko Ritala from the University of Helsinki, Finland.
Picosun’s ambition is to take ALD where it has never gone before, to enable novel, disruptive industrial solutions and cutting‐edge new products for our customers. We are very happy and proud that our photo‐ALD system has enabled great results at our long‐term collaboration partner, University of Helsinki. It is fascinating to introduce this technology to our industrial partners to help them find new ways to solve their manufacturing challenges.
Juhana Kostamo, Managing Director of Picosun.