Selective atomic layer deposition of HfO2 on copper patterned silicon substrates

Selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) was performed on copper patterned silicon substrates to selectively deposit HfO2 film on silicon. The selectivity is based on differences of surface physics/chemistry rather than use of any molecular masking such as self-assembled monolayers. On silicon, the growth rate of HfO2 is 0.11 nm /cycle with no initial inhibition of film growth, while on copper no HfO2 deposition was observed up to at least 25 ALD cycles. The selective growth on silicon over copper at 25 ALD cycles provides a patterned film deposition at thicknesses of 2.8 nm HfO2 which is relevant to semiconductor nanofabrication. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3428771]