April 12, 2012
Carleton’s ALD Lab is discovering new ways to bond molecules
When Seán Barry joined Carleton in 2003, he received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and was able to start a lab with significant investment in synthetic chemistry, as well as in thin film deposition. In fall 2011, Barry’s incredible team, that has been doing in-depth research in thin film chemistry, also received further funding from CFI’s Leaders Opportunity Fund. All of this support is helping them lead groundbreaking research.
The work of Barry’s team is diverse, but focuses on atomic layer deposition (ALD) – a way to deposit thin films on surfaces, one atomic layer at a time. For example, one of Barry’s PhD students, Jason Coyle, is working on the development of precursor molecules. The process involves designing a compound and putting it together synthetically; then testing it to make sure it behaves properly when heated and when reacting with other compounds. After that, precursor molecules are used to develop a process for thin film deposition.
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ALD Lab Members: (from left to right) Peter Pallister, Andrew Lushington, Peter Gordon, Seán Barry, Jason Coyle, Adam Wells. Absent: Agnes Kurek
It would be very rewarding to see a project through from the beginning development stages to a functioning, real-world application.
Coyle’s focus is on copper and its use in microelectronics. A typical microelectronic chip is a large number of little devices that have to work together. One of the things he is working on is to build features of copper that would wire these parts together. “It’s a complex process and a very chemistry-dependent technique,” says Coyle.
“If I were to use an analogy of a microchip being a city, where each of the buildings is a device, then the interconnects that Jason is working on are like roads that connect them all in the city,” adds Barry.
Coyle’s project is done in collaboration with the GreenCentre Canada and he has also recently completed a related internship in California at Applied Materials, a company that creates tools for building microchips.
Another member of Barry’s team is Agnieszka Kurek – a PhD student who recently transferred for a semester to the Tyndall National Institute in Cork City, Ireland.
“Using the advanced facilities here at Tyndall, I hope to develop and test deposition processes,” she explains. “If all goes well, by the end of my four-month visit I will be able to test and characterize a device that I helped make. It would be very rewarding to see a project through from the beginning development stages to a functioning, real-world application.”
What I like about chemistry and our work is how abstract these ideas may seem but how fundamental they actually are – because, ultimately, we are actually changing bonding and making new molecules!
It’s a true international collaboration as the precursors Kurek needs are made at Carleton’s synthetic lab and then shipped to Tyndall, where she can test them under varied heating temperatures, pulse times and other conditions, and also deposit thin coatings onto silicon wafers.
The team’s efforts so far have been incredibly successful. For example, a typical agreement for sharing intellectual property (IP) is that a student doesn’t own much of it. However, Barry says that Coyle, for example, has had such a huge impact on the IP that he owns half of the project he is working on. Barry’s team is also the first group to ever deposit gold metal by ALD. They decided to test it because they say that gold can have a similar chemistry to copper. The team collaborates with colleagues in Canada, Europe and the U.S. on a regular basis.
The group is working in tandem with each other and part of their success is due to their dedication to chemistry, but also to their excellent collective efforts.
“My favourite part is that we all know each other and are comfortable with each other,” says Kurek. “There is always someone, student or faculty, to ask for help or get advice from. I feel that we are a very closely knit community and that makes us stand apart from the rest.”
“We greatly enjoy working together,” adds Barry. “I, personally, also really like the freedom that university research allows us, because together we can do so many different types of research.”
“What I like about chemistry and our work,” says Coyle, “is how abstract these ideas may seem but how fundamental they actually are – because, ultimately, we are actually changing bonding and making new molecules!”
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