Low Temperature Area Selective Atomic Layer Deposition of Ruthenium Dioxide Thin Films Using Polymers as Inhibition Layers

Abstract Area selective atomic layer deposition (AS‐ALD) is an interesting bottom‐up approach due to its self‐aligned fabrication potential. Ruthenium dioxide (RuO₂) is an important material for several applications, including microelectronics, demanding area selective processing. Herein, it is shown that ALD of RuO₂ using methanol and RuO₄ as reactants results in uninhibited continuous growth on SiO₂, whereas there is no deposition on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) blanket films even up to 200 ALD cycles, resulting in around 25 nm of selective RuO₂ deposition on SiO₂. The excellent selectivity of the process is verified with X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X‐ray fluorescence, and scanning transmission electron microscopy. AS‐ALD is possible at deposition temperatures as low as 60 °C, with an area selective window from 60 to 120 °C. The deposition of RuO₂ using other coreactants namely ethanol and isopropanol in combination with RuO₄ increases the process's growth rate while maintaining selectivity. Testing different polymer thin films such as poly(ethylene terephthalate glycol), (poly(lauryl methacrylate)‐co‐ethylene glycol dimethacrylate), polystyrene, and Kraton reveals an important relationship between polymer structure and the applicability of such polymers as mask layers. Finally, the developed method is demonstrated by selectively depositing RuO₂ on patterned SiO₂/PMMA samples, followed by PMMA removal, resulting in RuO₂ nanopatterns.