Chemistry and Characterisation of Surfaces and Thin Films

Vakinformatie

The subject "chemistry and characterisation of surfaces and thin films" (CCSTF) is coordinated and taught by Professors Stefan De Gendt and Annelies Delabie. Here, you'll be accompanied by mostly students with bio- and nano-engineering backgrounds and several PhD candidates. Guest speakers from Imec are invited weekly to explain characterisation techniques in which they are specialised, such as TOF-SIMS and electron microscopy, as well as the atomic-scale processing of any such semiconductor-containing materials. Initially, evaluation of this subject consisted of writing a paper and taking an open-book examination, both at 50% of the total score to be obtained. Explanations on the content of the paper to be written with necessary information on the presentation to be made, are given throughout the year. The presentation concerning the paper is held in a conference-format where fellow students and both professors are able to ask various questions ranging in any difficulty.

Due to circulation of the corona virus, the evaluation format of the open-book exam has been (temporarily) dropped.

Examenvragen

12 januari 2024

1. Only examination of presentations were done concerning the mandatory paper.

11 januari 2019 VM

1. A figure is given about the SAM formation mechanism. Discuss every step and explain in detail all the interactions and processes that take place in the different steps.

12 januari 2018

1. There's a difference between the surface preparation of substrates for ALD and epitaxy. Explain why.

2017: voorbeeld examenvragen gegeven door de Prof

1. Lesson 1-2
   • How can we construct a biosensor starting from a nanopore transducer element. What are the required steps.
   • By performing an antibody immobilization experiment on both, SPR or QCM, significant different values expressed in ng/cm2 were obtained. What can be a possible reason for this.
2. Lesson 3
   • Explain from an electron energy point of view the mechanism of current flow in a galvanic cell.
   • Discuss the pH dependence in water electrolysis and its relation to electrochemical processing.
3. Lesson 4
   • If given the choice between XPS and TOFSIMS for an analytical problem, when whould you certainly (not) choose XPS (or TOFSIMS)? Justify your answer.
   • Why is the addition of an in-situ AFM inside a TOFSIMS instrument a very interesting add-on and what would be the limitations?
4. Lesson 5
   • Explain the dynamics of the oxidation process 'Deal Grove model). Why is there a dependency on the Si crystal orientation and the type of oxidizing species.
   • Explain why for a cleaning process there is a pH dependency for metal contamination cleaning and for particulate contamination cleaning.
5. Lesson 6
   • Can you explain how bottom up approaches can enable further scaling in nano-electronic devices and discuss one example in more detail.
   • Explain the kinetics of SAM formation and why can they follow or deviate from the Langmuir growth law.
6. Lesson 7
   • How does the process control of a CVD process change when the temperature increases?
   • Silicon oxide is used as dielectric to isolate Cu metal lines. How can the dielectric constant of the insulator be reduced?
7. Lesson 8
   • ALD gives conformal films and growth control at the atomic level. Explain how this results from the ALD growth principle.
   • How has ALD contributed to innovations in CMOS technology.
   • Explain why surface preparation is needed for ALD of high-k-dielectric layers.