Manufacturing with Light - photochemical ALD to manufacture functional thin films

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Photovoltaics)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor PR Chalker
Centre for Materials and Structures
University of Liverpool

Standard

EPSRC

01 March 2014

31 August 2015

18 months

£200,463

Optics; photonics & lasers

North West

Manufacturing : Manufacturing

Professor PR Chalker, Centre for Materials and Structures, University of Liverpool

Dr RJ Potter, Centre for Materials and Structures, University of Liverpool
Dr CJ Sutcliffe, Centre for Materials and Structures, University of Liverpool

Project Contact, SAFC Hitech

The purpose of this project is to develop a novel photochemical ALD manufacturing technology. Conventional atomic layer deposition is already widely used in the displays and microelectronics industries. It is a thermo-chemical process where two precursor reagents are pulsed in cycles onto a heated work piece. The combination of the substrate temperature and the chemical reaction energy drive the process forward to deposit the thin film layer by layer. Because the process occurs on the surface, highly uniform and conformal layers can be deposited onto high-aspect ratio or porous materials with ultra-precise thickness control. In this project, we propose to develop a UV photochemical ALD process. The purpose of this is to reduce the dependence of the process on thermal energy. We will use an existing ALD reactor at Liverpool and incorporate into it a switchable UV lamp source. This will be configured so that it can expose the separate gas-phase precursors or on the surface as adsorbates. The wavelength of the output will be tuned to photo-chemically decompose the precursors to form the film. In the second stage of the project we will investigate selective deposition or 'writing' of ALD films. We'll do this using a near field approach with a lithographic plate and secondly by incorporating a TI DLP chip into the optical train just above the work piece. Both of these approaches will enable us to expose adsorbates on the surface selectively and explore the prospect of patterning ALD films. If successful, the project establish the feasibility of a new process technology to extend ALD the other industry sectors, such as roll-to-roll barrier layers; plastic electronics; organic - inorganic PV; biomedical instruments and others.

11/04/14