Picosun Oy, leading supplier of high quality Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) thin film coating solutions, reports of breakthrough results achieved with its ALD technology in development of novel high-speed memories. These memories are required in state-of-the-art data storage applications, where a combination of very large capacity and extremely fast operating speed is needed. The results have been obtained at Picosun’s long-term customer Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Russia.
ReRAM (Resistance Switching Random Access Memory) is a new, non-volatile memory type which has the attributes to become the much sought-after universal memory to replace and outperform the current technologies, and to solve the ever-growing demand for more and more efficient data storage systems. ReRAM is fast, small, structurally simple, it has high capacity and it operates at low voltages. These features help to decrease the device size, power consumption, and response time, allowing yet smoother-operating electronic end products. Smaller operating voltage enables ReRAM integration also to low-power devices such as portable, wearable, and mobile electronics, remote sensing and IoT (Internet of Things) applications, the number of which is growing explosively at the moment.
This far, achieving exact control over the elemental structure of the functional layers in the ReRAM memory cell has been one of the technology’s key challenges. ALD is the perfect method to solve this challenge, especially in reaching the controllable growth of oxygen deficient oxides, as with ALD the manufacturing process can be fine-tuned and digitally controlled with atomic level precision. Further, ALD is already a production-proven, mature technology in semiconductor industries and thus simple to integrate into existing process flows.
“We are very pleased with the performance of our PICOSUN™ ALD system. With it, we can deposit the critical material layers of our ReRAM structure with precision that allows atomic scale control of their chemical composition. We have used our PICOSUN™ system for years and achieved several breakthrough results with it. Specifically, PICOSUN™ plasma tool allowed us to achieve a robust ALD process for depositing an oxygen-deficient TaOx film based on plasma-activated hydrogen as the reactant and the alkoxide compound Ta(OC2H5)5 as the Ta precursor, which already has a Ta−O bond in it. In this approach, the critical idea is to remove the C2H5 groups by forming volatile C2H6 or C2H5(OH) molecules via the reaction with plasma-activated hydrogen(*). The PICOSUN™ system is also very flexible yet extremely reliable. A further asset is the inbuilt upscalability of Picosun’s ALD technology – successful R&D results can be readily transferred to production in a larger, industrial-scale PICOSUN™ equipment,” says Dr. Andrey Markeev, Principal Research Scientist of MIPT Nanotechnology Center.
“We have been working with MIPT for a long time so we are extremely pleased that our system has enabled their cutting-edge results in ReRAM technology. Our industrial customers include several leading memory manufacturers, and it is exciting to be a part in the development of yet more advanced data storage solutions. These will enable a whole new family of microelectronic products to improve our everyday lives, safety, and ways of communication,” continues Mr. Juhana Kostamo, Managing Director of Picosun.