The applicability of a step-coverage model in atomic layer deposition was extended to the deposition of TiO 2 films, focusing on the effect of a precursor partial pressure and a deposition temperature, as well as the number of cycles in step coverage. Using the extracted model parameters, step coverage depending on the number of cycles was predicted, which shows a nonlinear dependence of film thickness inside a hole on the number of cycles because the area of a hole entrance decreases as the deposition proceeds. The experimental data agreed well with the model predictions. To confirm the validity of the step-coverage model, the effect of a precursor partial pressure and a deposition temperature on step coverage was also investigated. The flux of precursors that strikes the flat surface is the model parameter related to a precursor partial pressure, and the initial sticking probability and the adsorption order are the model parameters related to a deposition temperature. For different experimental conditions, by obtaining the model parameters related to changed experimental conditions from the experimental data at the flat surface, film thickness per cycle at the bottom inside a hole depending on precursor injection time could be predicted within reasonable accuracy.Atomic layer deposition ͑ALD͒ is one of the most promising thin-film deposition techniques to enable nanoscale device fabrication, due to its advantages over other conventional deposition techniques such as physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition. 1,2 The advantages include the ability to control film thickness at atomic dimensions, the ability to produce highly conformal thin films, and wide area uniformity, as a result of selflimited reactions by the chemisorptions of alternately pulsed precursor and reactant gases. 2-6 Among these, the production of highly conformal thin films on microfeatures with high aspect ratios has been considered as one of the greatest advantages, especially for capacitors in semiconductor memories. 7 However, even in ALD, as aspect ratios severely increase, it is not trivial to obtain conformal thin films on microfeatures. To support this task, it is necessary to theoretically investigate the film deposition inside a microfeature in ALD and predict the process time required to achieve reasonable step coverage. In general, ALD of binary compound systems is performed by supplying precursor and reactant gases onto the outermost surface sequentially, with purges of an inert gas between precursor and reactant gases. The nonoverlapping alternate dosing of precursor and reactant gases prohibits reactions in the gas phase and thus leads to film deposition that highly depends on the adsorption and surface reaction kinetics. The precursor chemisorbs on the surface in the precursor injection step, and the chemisorbed precursor reacts with the reactant to deposit a layer of film on the surface in the reactant injection step. Among these steps in one ALD cycle, step coverage is greatly influenced by the precursor injectio...

The thickness changes in Hf aluminate films deposited by PEALD were investigated by modifying the process sequence. The conventional supercycle of Hf aluminate film is composed of two groups of subcycles allocated to deposit Al 2 O 3 and HfO 2 films. The dielectric constants of these thin films decrease with decreasing film thickness. This decrease originates to a changing preferred orientation from (200) to (111). Using the modified supercycle which has a periodically addition of small dose of Al 2 O 3 in HfO 2 thin film, the HfO 2 film was transformed from (111) preferred orientation to (200) preferred orientation. As a result of preferred orientation change, the dielectric constant of films increased up to 22.5