On the 25th of May 2023, the Fundamentals of ALD course took place at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Responses to the course:
Students Professionals(<5 years) Postdocs Professionals(>5 years)20 57.1% 9 25.7% 4 11.4% 2 5.7%
4.6 out of 5.0 stars The course was relevant
4.6 out of 5.0 stars The course flowed logically
4.9 out of 5.0 stars The course was well presented by the speakers
4.7 out of 5.0 stars The course met my expectations
4.2 out of 5.0 stars The course has provided useful skills
4.4 out of 5.0 stars Enough time was allocated to cover each theme
4.4 out of 5.0 stars The course material was useful
4.7 out of 5.0 stars The course was set up well
4.8 out of 5.0 starsI would recommend the course to others
“I have almost 2 years of experience in the field and I wish I would have followed the course 1.5 years ago”
“Extremely well presented, lots of passion”
“Though very good, the course is quite intensive. It was a lot of information in 1 day”
“Very relevant to both academia and industry”
“Great to follow a course given by great names in the field. Very valuable!”
Description and target audience – A full day course to learn the fundamentals of atomic layer deposition (ALD). The aim is to provide both in-depth mechanistic understanding as well as to provide practical information how to run ALD processes in a laboratory or industrial setting. The target audience are newcomers to the field and engineers/scientists/professionals who want to get a better understanding of the fundamental aspects underlying ALD.
Topics that were covered include the basics of ALD and its key features (thickness control, conformality, uniformity, low temperature); ALD processes (oxides, nitrides, metals, sulfides, etc.); precursors and co-reactants for ALD; ALD process design; ALD configurations and reactors; hardware effects and ALD practicalities; ALD surface chemistries; nucleation effects and initial growth, etc.
Instructors – The course was given by:
- Prof. Gregory Parsons – North Carolina State University, U.S.A.
- Prof. Séan Barry – Carleton University, Canada
- Prof. Erwin Kessels – Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Course material – The course material was provided during the course. Some course material will be made available for download here (password-protected)
Program – The program ran from 9:00 to 17:00 consisted of 7 sessions. The day ended with drinks. A tour to the NanoLab@TU/e clean room and other ALD labs was optional.
The program schedule was:
| 09:00 | 09:15 | Welcome and opening |
| 09:15 | 10:00 | Introduction to ALD and its key features |
| 10:00 | 10:45 | ALD processes and applications |
| 10:45 | 11:15 | Morning break |
| 11:15 | 12:00 | Precursors and co-reactants for ALD |
| 12:00 | 13:30 | Lunch break |
| 13:30 | 14:15 | ALD reactors and hardware effects |
| 14:15 | 15:00 | ALD surface chemistry |
| 15:00 | 15:30 | Afternoon break |
| 15:30 | 16:15 | Uniformity and conformality of ALD |
| 16:15 | 17:00 | Nucleation and initial growth during ALD |
| 17:00 | 18:00 | Drinks (optional: lab tour) |
Venue – The courses took place at the campus of the Eindhoven University of Technology in the theater hall of the Grand Café De Zwarte Doos (https://www.dezwartedoos.nl/homeeng, here you can also find the directions).