The increasing demands of Information Technology continue to drive advances for materials with higher and higher dielectric constants. The biggest roadblock for the characterisation of ‘pyrophoric’ or ‘air sensitive’ precursors and new materials is access to high integrity analytical equipment. SAFC HITECH has therefore continued to fund research and development within University Institutions to further such R&D and analysis.
SAFC HITECH is currently providing financial support to University of Liverpool, University of Bath and University College London for the employment of both postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers. Throughout the course of such R&D projects, secondments of staff and students between SAFC HITECH and the Institutions have been made to meet project demands.
- University of Liverpool: the academic team of the University of Liverpool is composed of Professor Tony Jones and Dr Helen Aspinall from the Department of Chemistry for synthesis, purification and analysis expertise. MOCVD and ALD deposition processes are led by Professor Paul Chalker of the Department of Materials, where growth, assessment and characterisation of dielectric thin films is carried out. Such collaboration has provided access to a range of expertise and state-of-the-art process facilities within the University such as clean rooms and MOCVD reactors.
- University of Bath: the research funded by SAFC HITECH at Bath is directed to the synthesis of ternary metal nitride precursors under the supervision of Professor Kieran Molloy and Dr Andrew Johnson. This collaboration allows access to new inorganic synthesis methods and MOCVD processes.
- University College London: Further research is funded at UCL under the supervision of Dr Claire Carmalt (Reader in Chemistry) working on transition metal nitride precursors for CVD and ALD. The group at UCL has access to all major analytical techniques including SEM/EDAX, XPS, TGA, powder XRD, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy.
Other collaborations that do not involve the direct funding of staff or students include:-
Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) and University of Helsinki (Finland). Under the direction of Professors Niinisto (HUT) and Rittala (UH) access to ALD and MOCVD systems for the growth of dielectric layers is achieved.
University of Southampton (Dr Andrew Hector) for anaerobic TGA and DSC measurements.
Collaboration with Universities has been a major success for SAFC HITECH with state-of-the-art results being disseminated at conferences, published in the literature and made available to potential customers.
SAFC HITECH continues to work collaboratively with a number of universities on the development of process technologies for the advancing state of Information Technology. To meet the demands of the manufacturers, the understanding and qualification of precursors and materials is central to gaining their acceptance and integration into fabrication processes.
Without such collaborations scientific progression would grind to a halt. |
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