The Korean Society of Surface Science and Engineering

As the limits of semiconductor integration are approached, the challenges in semiconductor processes have intensified. And, for the production of semiconductors with dimensions under a few nanometers and to resolve the issues related to nanoscale device fabrication, research on atomic layer etching (ALE) technology has been conducted. The investigation related to ALE encompasses not only silicon and dielectric materials but also metallic materials. Particularly, there is an increasing need for ALE in next-generation metal materials that could replace copper in interconnect materials. This brief review will summarize the concept and methods of ALE and describe recent studies on potential next-generation metal replacements for copper, along with their ALE processes.

Keywords atomic layer etching (ALE); metal; plasma ALE; thermal ALE.