Research Center for Atomic Layer Processes Established

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The Kurt J. Lesker Company and Penn State University have established a joint research center for the development and validation of atomic-layer processes. The center focuses on processes for applications in semiconductor technology, quantum technology, photonics, and packaging and interconnect technology.

Kurt Lesker IV (left), President and CEO of the Kurt J. Lesker Company, and Andrew Read, Senior Vice President for Research at Penn State University, at the opening of the joint research center Aspire.
Kurt Lesker IV (left), President and CEO of the Kurt J. Lesker Company, and Andrew Read, Senior Vice President for Research at Penn State University, at the opening of the joint research center Aspire. (Photo: Jennifer M. McCann / Penn State)

The new research center, the “Kurt J. Lesker Company Atomic Scale Processing Center of Excellence” (Aspire), is located in the Penn State University nanofabrication laboratory in the Millennium Science Complex. It combines Lesker’s equipment for atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) with the university’s research and characterization infrastructure, according to Lesker.

The goal of the collaboration is to develop and validate processes for material processing at the atomic level. The research focuses on applications in semiconductor technology, quantum technology, photonics, and packaging technology. The processes developed are intended to be made available in the future to both the equipment manufacturer’s customers and research institutions.

The establishment of the center builds on a previous research collaboration. As part of that collaboration, ferroelectric thin films made of aluminum-scandium nitride (AlScN) were already developed using plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition. According to the collaboration partners, these are the world’s first ferroelectric AlScN thin films produced in this manner.

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