Thin-Film Materials Science

We have been working in the field of thin-film materials science for almost two decades.  The following list provides details of some of our accomplishments in this field:

• Implementation of a production facility for making spin-on chemicals to be used in the fabrication of high-dielectric ceramic thin-films.  These thin-films were used in the production of capacitor arrays.

• In collaboration with Nortel’s Center for Microstructural Analysis, the use of fluorescence and Focused Ion Beam (FIB) methods to isolate and characterize defects in thin-film capacitor structures on semiconducting substrates.

• Proposing and demonstrating substrate adhesion properties of metal thin-film electrode materials on low-loss dielectric substrates for possible use in the production of thin-film microwave devices.

• Suppression of ionic vacancy formation/diffusion in perovskite thin-films by means of ppm ionic doping techniques.

• Demonstration of sol-gel deposition and growth of (111) oriented MgO thin-films using theta-2theta, rocking-curve and pole-figure XRD techniques.

• Deposition of nanocrystalline MgF₂ – SiO₂ composite thin-films using sol-gel methods, and the characterization of these films using a variety of thin-film analytical tools.

• Characterization of stress in thin-films on semiconductor substrates using optical cantilever methods.

• The use of STEM and EELS to characterize nanometer scale interfacial diffusion between thin-film electrode and thin-film dielectric materials.

• Evaluation of the use of spectroscopic ellipsometry as a method for determining band gap properties of semiconducting ceramic thin-films.

• Characterization of the velocity of dissolution of photoresist thin-films on semiconductor substrates using supercritical carbon dioxide.

• Evaluation of ohmic contact behaviour of a variety of thin-film electrode materials deposited on the III-V compound semiconductor material indium phosphide.

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