Surrogate models to optimize plasma assisted atomic layer deposition in high aspect ratio features

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Hauptverfasser: Yanguas-Gil, Angel, Elam, Jeffrey W.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Yanguas-Gil, Angel
Elam, Jeffrey W.
author_facet Yanguas-Gil, Angel
Elam, Jeffrey W.
contents In this work we explore surrogate models to optimize plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) in high aspect ratio features. In plasma-based processes such as PEALD and atomic layer etching, surface recombination can dominate the reactivity of plasma species with the surface, which can lead to unfeasibly long exposure times to achieve full conformality inside nanostructures like high aspect ratio vias. Using a synthetic dataset based on simulations of PEALD, we train artificial neural networks to predict saturation times based on cross section thickness data obtained for partially coated conditions. The results obtained show that just two experiments in undersaturated conditions contain enough information to predict saturation times within 10% of the ground truth. A surrogate model trained to determine whether surface recombination dominates the plasma-surface interactions in a PEALD process achieves 99% accuracy. This demonstrates that machine learning can provide a new pathway to accelerate the optimization of PEALD processes in areas such as microelectronics. Our approach can be easily extended to atomic layer etching and more complex structures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_09313
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Surrogate models to optimize plasma assisted atomic layer deposition in high aspect ratio features
Yanguas-Gil, Angel
Elam, Jeffrey W.
Materials Science
Machine Learning
Plasma Physics
In this work we explore surrogate models to optimize plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) in high aspect ratio features. In plasma-based processes such as PEALD and atomic layer etching, surface recombination can dominate the reactivity of plasma species with the surface, which can lead to unfeasibly long exposure times to achieve full conformality inside nanostructures like high aspect ratio vias. Using a synthetic dataset based on simulations of PEALD, we train artificial neural networks to predict saturation times based on cross section thickness data obtained for partially coated conditions. The results obtained show that just two experiments in undersaturated conditions contain enough information to predict saturation times within 10% of the ground truth. A surrogate model trained to determine whether surface recombination dominates the plasma-surface interactions in a PEALD process achieves 99% accuracy. This demonstrates that machine learning can provide a new pathway to accelerate the optimization of PEALD processes in areas such as microelectronics. Our approach can be easily extended to atomic layer etching and more complex structures.
title Surrogate models to optimize plasma assisted atomic layer deposition in high aspect ratio features
topic Materials Science
Machine Learning
Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09313