News: Suppliers
9 July 2021
Meaglow’s ALD gas plasma technology granted European patent
Meaglow Ltd of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, which produces migration-enhanced afterglow epitaxy equipment and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) accessories, says that its hollow-cathode plasma technology has been granted a patent by the European Patent Office. This follows existing patents granted in the USA and elsewhere.
The gas plasma sources have already been applied by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) research community, providing a solution to the oxygen contamination problems seen when depositing non-oxide layers with the legacy plasma technologies.
In recent years ALD has become an important tool in the semiconductor industry for the manufacture of chips for computers, cell phones and other mobile devices. Meaglow says that adoption of its hollow-cathode plasma source by the research community has been relatively rapid, as many other equipment suppliers were unresponsive to the problem of oxygen contamination. Some now seek or provide solutions, but Meaglow is supplying to five original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). There are 60-plus Meaglow hollow-cathode plasma sources in the field and over 50 research-based journal publications have resulted from them. A 12”-diameter source is also being evaluated by a customer, so the technology may soon find adoption in production facilities.
“When we first introduced this technology, many of the ALD equipment manufacturers weren’t even aware there was a problem – but their customers were,” says chief scientist Dr Scott Butcher. “It’s good to now see the widespread adoption of hollow-cathode technology, especially amongst some OEMs.”
Meaglow receives order for 50th hollow-cathode gas plasma source
Meaglow’s hollow cathode plasma source reduces oxygen contamination by orders of magnitude
