A brief overview of atomic layer deposition and etching in the semiconductor processing

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) are two important techniques in the semiconductor processing, which focus ultra-thin film deposition and etching, respectively. Both of them have the self-limiting surface behavior, and could realize the atomic-scale fidelity in the deposition and etching processes. Unlike traditional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD), ALD has good step coverage, atomic-scale thickness controllability, and composition uniformity at low growth temperature. Compared with traditional continuous-wave plasma etching, ALE has smooth surface, excellent depth uniformity and atomic-scale thickness controllability. In this review, their fundamental and applications have been discussed.