New development of atomic layer deposition: processes, methods and applications

Abstract

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an ultra-thin film deposition technique that has found many applications owing to its distinct abilities. They include uniform deposition of conformal films with controllable thickness, even on complex three-dimensional surfaces, and can improve the efficiency of electronic devices. This technology has attracted significant interest both for fundamental understanding how the new functional materials can be synthesized by ALD and for numerous practical applications, particularly in advanced nanopatterning for microelectronics, energy storage systems, desalinations, catalysis and medical fields. This review introduces the progress made in ALD, both for computational and experimental methodologies, and provides an outlook of this emerging technology in comparison with other film deposition methods. It discusses experimental approaches and factors that affect the deposition and presents simulation methods, such as molecular dynamics and computational fluid dynamics, which help determine and predict effective ways to optimize ALD processes, hence enabling the reduction in cost, energy waste and adverse environmental impacts. Specific examples are chosen to illustrate the progress in ALD processes and applications that showed a considerable impact on other technologies.

Antimicrobial Bilayer Nanocomposites Based on the Incorporation of As-Synthetized Hollow Zinc Oxide Nanotubes

“…On the other hand, the atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a technique that allows the fabrication of nanometric layers of a great variety of materials in different substrates [18]. This technique consists in the generation of thin films by introducing sequentially and cyclically two or more precursors in gas phase, under conditions of controlled temperature and pressure, where the precursors react chemically with the surface of a substrate, allowing the formation of atomic-scale monolayers [18,19]. Generally, a metal-organic precursor and a co-reactant as an oxygen source or as reducing agent are used [20].…”

Ultrathin permselective membranes: the latent way for efficient gas separation

“…The drawbacks of ALD technique are the time required for chemical reactions, high quantity of wasted material, high energy consumption, and possible nanoparticle emissions. 66 For instance, ZnO layers, which correspond to 5-70 nm size, have been deposited onto a-Al 2 O 3 . 67 Subsequently, the conversion to ZIF-8 using a 2-methylimidazole-methanol solution under solvothermal conditions was achieved.…”

Atomic Layer Deposition for Polypropylene Film Engineering—A Review

“…PEALD uses mostly the same precursors and reaction mechanisms as thermal ALD, differing only in the activation of ALD reactions. [ 79 ] As described in Figure , PEALD and thermal ALD processes are the same in the first half cycle when both need to undergo adsorption of the first precursor onto the substrate, differing only in the second half cycle when thermal ALD exposes to another precursor while PEALD undergoes plasma exposure.…”