Sustainable scale-up studies of Atomic Layer Deposition for microelectronics manufacturing

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is a promising nanotechnology under rapid development for a wide variety of industrial applications. Wide application of ALD technology in industrial productions can generate significant impact on the environment and human health due to the toxic chemicals involved and process emissions generated from ALD production system. In this paper, we conducted computational analysis on a 10 wafer ALD processing system to study the sustainability performance of ALD technology during its batch size production. The simulation is performed on the ALD of Al₂O₃ high-k dielectric gate in microelectronics manufacturing based on the Cambridge Nanotech´s Savannah S100 system which is capable of processing 10 wafers simultaneously through a 10-wafer cassette sitting in the reactor covered by a dome lid. The sustainability analyses are performed by quantitatively investigating the production productivity, precursor emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, and nano-wastes generated from the ALD Al₂O₃ processes. The study shows that huge amounts of environmental emissions will be generated, and current ALD nanotechnologies must be significantly improved before its wide implementation in various industrial sectors.