Large-area atomic layer deposition and characterization of Al2O3 film grown using AlCl3 and H2O

The atomic layer deposition (ALD) process of Al2O3 films in a large area tr aveling wave reactor was studied as well as the materials and electrical ch aracteristics of the films. The precursors used in the deposition of Al2O3 were AlCl3 and H2O. The dependence of growth rate and Cl content of Al2O3 f ilms an the growth temperature was investigated at the reactor temperature ranging from 300 degrees C to 500 degrees C. The growth rate decreased from 0.66 to 0.45 Angstrom/cycle as the reactor temperature increased from 330 degrees C to 500 degrees C. The etch rate of the films and the annealing ef fect on the crystallinity of Al2O3 films were also studied. The dependence of characteristics of Al2O3 On the growth conditions was discussed accordin g to the growth mechanism. The electrical characteristics including breakdo wn electric field and leakage current of the Al2O3 films were measured to d etermine the effect of growth temperature on electrical properties. The bre akdown electric field of Al2O3 films grown at 300 degrees C and 500 degrees C were 5.7 and 4.5 MV/cm, respectively. The 500 a thick-Al2O3 him revealed the leakage current density in the order of 10(-8) A/cm(2) with 3 MV/cm el ectric field.