
ASM International has said it has reached a new milestone with the shipment of over 500 atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactors for use in semiconductor manufacturing. According to the company it now has ALD reactors in operation at a majority of advanced logic and memory fabs worldwide. The figure also includes Plasma Enhanced ALD systems which provide an advantage for certain applications, such as very low temperature processing.
ASM's plasma and thermal ALD systems are used in high volume manufacturing for a wide range of applications, including high- k and metals for advanced transistor gates, capacitor dielectrics and electrodes, and spacers for double patterning, among others.