As demand for more powerful microelectronic devices continues to rise, new atomic layer processing technologies are needed to keep pace with shrinking dimensions and increasingly complex device architectures. Thermal budget has become a limiting constraint, as 3D integration and temperature-sensitive substrates leave little room for conventional high-temperature deposition and etching. In this talk, I will present results from CU Boulder’s electron-enhanced atomic scale processing, in which low-energy electrons replace thermal energy to drive surface reactions below 120 °C. I will cover electron-enhanced atomic layer deposition (EE-ALD), electron-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (EE-CVD), and electron-enhanced chemical vapor etching (EE-CVE), with results for TiN and composition-tunable TiCN; silicon and its oxide, nitride, and carbide; carbon deposition and etching; and ZrO2, among others.

Zachary Sobell is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from UCLA in 2017 and his PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2023, where he worked in the group that developed electron-enhanced atomic layer deposition. His research focuses on the use of low-energy electrons in atomic scale processing. His published work includes the development of a robust electron source suitable for electron-enhanced processing, as well as the deposition and etching of over a dozen materials.