Latest Blogs
Community databases for Atomic Scale Processing
ALD Database
A community-driven database of Atomic Layer Deposition processes, materials, and precursors. Explore reported ALD chemistries, collected from the scientific literature and community contributions.
ALE Database
A community-driven database of Atomic Layer Etching processes. Explore reported isotropic and anisotropic ALE chemistries, collected from the scientific literature and community contributions.
ImageBase
A community-driven database of images related to Atomic-Scale Processing. Explore high-quality images for re-use, collected from community contributions.
ReviewBase
A community-driven database of key review papers and resources in Atomic Layer Deposition, Etching, and related atomic-scale processing technologies.
Our sponsors
Browse our Blogs
-
A Closer Look at Tailored Waveform Biasing with an Industrial Generator – New “knobs” for precisely controlling ion energy in ALE and ALD
The continued evolution of semiconductor technology—as well as advances in emerging material platforms—places increasingly stringent demands on nanofabrication steps such as etching and deposition. Processes must not only enable atomic-scale…
-
Looking Back at Spatial ALD Day 2.0 – with photos and downloadable presentations!
A little over a month ago, we proudly hosted the second edition of Spatial ALD Day in Eindhoven. After our first edition in 2022, we were thrilled to finally bring…
-
Register now – Spatial ALD Day 2.0 – October 28, 2025
Registration closed Register now for the second edition of the Spatial ALD Day, which will take place on Tuesday, October 28, 2025! This event follows the highly successful first Spatial…
-
Celebrating ALE at ALD/ALE 2025 in Jeju, Korea – Updates to the history, new animations, and insights from industry
At the end of June (June 22–25, 2025), the ALD/ALE 2025 conference took place in Jeju, South Korea. The conference combines the International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition (25th edition…
-
Company Course on Plasma Physics – Teaching Elementary Plasma Physics to Companies in the Eindhoven Brainport Region
Earlier, I wrote a blog post about the significance of plasma physics in EUV lithography and how ASML recognizes its importance—so much that ASML has a portion of their “Research”…
-
Collaboration at the interface – Takeaways from the ALD/ALE for quantum technologies workshop
On the 20th of May, the atomic layer deposition and etching for quantum technologies workshop took place at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The event was a great success—if we…
-
How atomic scale processing can help to pave the way for future quantum devices — A Workshop to bridge ALD/ALE and Quantum communities
As a prelude to our upcoming workshop on atomic layer deposition and etching for quantum technologies, we share our vision in this blog post about how ALD and ALE can…
-
Advancing Thin Film Metrology in 3D Structures — The Benefits of the PillarHall Concept
This is a blogpost initiated by our sponsor Chipmetrics The rapid advancement of nanoelectronics is driving the transition to 3D vertical scaling, requiring ultra-thin, highly conformal films to be deposited…
-
Save the Date & Register Now: Second Edition of the Spatial ALD Day – October 28, 2025
We are excited to announce the second edition of the Spatial ALD Day, which will take place on Tuesday, October 28, 2025! This event follows the highly successful first Spatial…
-
Atomic layer deposition and etching for quantum technologies: Workshop on the 20th of May 2025!
On the 20th of May 2025, a full day event will be organized at the Eindhoven University of Technology focusing on the opportunities that atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic…
-
Passivating Contacts for Silicon Solar Cells — A Zinc Oxide Breakthrough?
In the field of silicon solar cells, the search for more efficient and cost-effective technologies never ceases. One of the most exciting developments of the past decade has been the…
-
Surface passivation as a cornerstone of modern semiconductor technology – Highlighting a comprehensive review paper on surface passivation for silicon, germanium, and III–V materials
What do transistors, solar cells, microLEDs, and thin-film transistors have in common? At first glance, the answer might seem straightforward: they all rely on semiconductor materials such as silicon (Si),…
-
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of ALD at ALD/ALE 2024 in Helsinki! – Updates of the history of ALD in timelines and the animated version of the ALD periodic table
Next week, from August 4 to 7, the ALD/ALE 2024 conference will be held in Helsinki, Finland. This event marks the 24th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition and will…
-
Atomic Limits company talk: AlixLabs – Atomic Layer Etching for Nano Device Fabrication
“An interview with Jonas Sundqvist” This is the sixth post in a series of blogs in which we share exciting information about companies or other organizations within the atomic scale…
-
AI serving the ALD community – Using ChatGPT 4 to extract ALD parameters from scientific papers
Recently, the Plasma and Materials Processing (PMP) group at the TU/e hosted de AI workshop, a company founded by four students that aims to educate and train people about using…
-
Introducing the new AtomicLimits ReviewBase – New features, new design and more to come!
We are very excited to announce the release of the totally renewed ReviewBase, which you can find in the menu above. We launched the original ReviewBase in 2022 as an…
-
The Significance of Plasma Physics in EUV Lithography – Teaching ASML employees my Introduction to Plasma Physics course
My main teaching task at the Eindhoven University of Technology takes place in the fall when I teach the MSc course “Physics of Plasmas and Radiation”. This course is mandatory…
-
Substrate biasing as a tuning knob for superconducting films – the “ALD and ALE for quantum project” celebrates its first year with a publication
In July 2022 we announced the research grant for the ‘Atomic Layer Deposition and Etching for Quantum Computing’ NWO project on AtomicLimits. This project focusing on atomic scale processing for…
-
Atomic Limits company talk: Swiss Cluster – Accelerating materials breakthroughs by combining ALD and PVD
“An interview with Carlos Guerra.” This is the fifth post in a series of blogs in which we will share exciting information about companies or other organizations within the atomic…
-
On the role of ions during plasma ALD – An animation summarizing many years of our research
Last year we finished a project called “Taking plasma ALD to the next level” (funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Applied and Engineering Sciences (AES) section). This…
-
Atomic Limits company talk: Trymax — Innovative plasma based equipment solutions
“An interview with Peter Dijkstra and Karsten Arts.” This is already the fourth post in a series of blogs in which we will share exciting information about companies or other…
-
After enabling AI it is time for the plasma community to benefit from AI – Personal view in a short perspective article
This blog post is about a short perspective article that I recently wrote for the ILTPC newsletter. ILTPC stands for the International Low Temperature Plasma Community. It is one of…
-
AtomicLimits company talk: ATLANT 3D – Atomic layer processing technology
“An interview with Maksym Plakhotnyuk.” This is another post in a series of blogs in which we will share exciting information about companies or other organizations within the atomic scale…
-
Plasma-Assisted Atomic Layer Deposition: Basics, Equipment, Applications – An upcoming AVS webinar – February 15, 2023
On February 15, 2023 (1:00 pm – 5:00 pm (EDT) I will give an AVS Webinar about the topic plasma-assisted ALD. I gave a similar webinar two years ago and…
-
Let’s chat GPC by chatGPT – Putting ChatGPT to the test and a first (?) article about ALD by AI
I’m sure you have heard the buzz in the field of artificial intelligence (AI)… The promise of AI is to augment human abilities in areas such as decision-making, problem-solving, and…
-
A review on Atomic Layer Deposition of (semi)conductive oxides – The role of ALD in these emerging materials and their applications
Quick link to open access paper: Applied Physics Reviews 9, 041313 (2022) Earlier this month I published my review paper entitled Atomic layer deposition of conductive and semiconductive oxides. It was…
-
Foundations of atomic-level plasma processing in nanoelectronics – Smaller, thinner, taller, etc … all enabled by plasmas
***Quick link to the open access paper: “Foundations of atomic-level plasma processing in nanoelectronics”*** We have just published a topical review paper entitled “Foundations of atomic-level plasma processing in nanoelectronics”…
-
AtomicLimits company talk: SparkNano — and their aim to commercialize spatial ALD for the energy market
Cover image: SparkNano engineers in the lab (courtesy of TNO) An interview with Huib Heezen and Paul Poodt This is the second post in a new series of blogs in which…
-
Looking back at the Spatial ALD day — with photos and downloadable presentations!
At the start of summer we hosted the first Spatial ALD day at the Eindhoven University of Technology. In this blogpost, I want to look back at this day with…
-
ALD and ALE go Quantum — Research grant for scalable atomic scale processing (ASP) techniques for quantum computing
Recently, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) revealed six research projects to receive funding within its Open Technology Programme. We are proud to announce that our project – Atomic Layer Deposition…
-
Update of the Atomic Scale Processing ReviewBase – Easy-to-access overview of ALD and ALE reviews (extended), ASD reviews (new) and ALD book chapters (new)
In late March, we launched our ReviewBase, a listing of atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) review articles. The ReviewBase files available in Excel and PDF formats…
-
Area-selective ALD of diffusion barriers for via optimization – There is plenty of room at the bottom
Please cite as M.J.M. Merkx, A.J.M. Mackus, Area-selective ALD of diffusion barriers for via optimization – There is plenty of room at the bottom. 2022, 7. AtomicLimits. This week the 6th…
-
Spatial ALD day – June 9th, register here!
On June 9th 2022, we will organize a spatial ALD day at the Eindhoven University of Technology. This full-day on-site (not online!) event will cover various aspects of spatial ALD,…
-
Launch of the ALD & ALE ReviewBase – An easy-to-access overview of all ALD and ALE review papers
The scientific and technological interest in atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE) has been surging in the last decade and the sheer volume of ALD and ALE…
-
Atomic Limits company talk: SALD — and their spatial ALD business
An interview with Bas van de Loo and Peter Visser This is the start of a new series of blog posts in which we will share exciting information about companies…
-
Atomic Layer Etch Carves the Path to More Efficient Computing
Abstract High-volume manufacturing (HVM) of atomic-scale semiconductor devices requires new approaches to deposit and etch materials in complex nano-architectures. Next-generation logic devices, including gate all-around (GAA) transistors and the conductors…
-
ALD from an application perspective – An upcoming AVS webinar
On February 9, 2022 (1:00 pm – 5:00 pm (EDT) I will give my second AVS Webinar. Last year I gave a webinar about the topic “Plasma-Assisted Atomic Layer Deposition:…
-
Metal-on-metal area-selective deposition — Why cobalt succeeded where tungsten failed
In 2019 we wrote a blog post on the use of area-selective deposition (ASD) for the fabrication of Fully Self-Aligned Via (FSAV) structures and how this application could enable further…
-
About (my way of) academic leadership
— A reflection after 10 years of chairing the Plasma & Materials Processing group at TU/eIn 2021 it was 10 years ago that I took over the chair position of the Plasma & Materials Processing (PMP) group at the Department of Applied Physics of the…
-
Students in plasma processing
A sneak peek into the real world – part II: the student perspectiveHow a master course can provide insights into real-life industrial challenges In the previous blog on the master course “plasma processing science and technology” given at the Eindhoven University of…
-
Unravelling complex nanoelectronic devices
A challenge-based learning assignment – part I: the teacher perspectiveWith the new academic year just started, this blogpost focuses on teaching, and describes the assignment we designed as part of a course on plasma processing. The inspiration for this…
-
Conformal deposition and gap-fill by plasma ALD – some great TEM images and recently published cover art
The ability of atomic layer deposition (ALD) to grow highly conformal thin films is one of the main reasons why ALD is so popular in research and heavily employed in…
-
Diving into the Fundamentals of Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition – Strengthening the S-ALD hub in Brainport region Eindhoven
On May 1st, we kicked off our new research project entitled “Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition – More Materials, More Demanding Applications” , granted by the NWO Domain Applied and Engineering…
-
A new flavor of ALE – What plasmas can bring to isotropic etching (a radical approach)
Plasmas can offer more than just etching straight down. This blog post aims to show that the etching community can benefit greatly from using plasmas for new applications. Currently, in…
-
What 2020 brought to the ALD/Database – Ternary materials and multi-step ALD processes are trending!
Key findings: ALD/Database continued to grow in 2020 by 323 new entries reaching 4527 entries in total. In 2020, we saw the introduction of: 123 new ALD processes, 20 new…
-
Control of the ion energy during plasma-based atomic-scale processing – animation and publication on tailored waveform biasing
This post is about the value of industry-academia partnerships, and about how such collaborations can trigger new innovations. This month exactly 3 years ago, we were approached by Prodrive Technologies,…
-
Introducing the AtomicLimits Image Library – finding images for re-use!
We are very happy to introduce our latest project to serve the community: the AtomicLimits Image Library! You can find this page in the menu at the top of the…
-
Understanding plasma ALD – Why ions matter… and should be considered!
[Note: a recording of my presentation for the 2020 Coburn and Winters Student Award competition can be viewed at the bottom of this page] This year I had the honor…
-
Visualizing the contributions of key authors to the field of ALD – Exploring newly implemented functionality of the ALD/Database
It is more than 2 years ago that Elsa Alvaro (Northwestern University Libraries) and Angel Yanguas-Gil (Argonne National Laboratory) published their research article “Characterizing the field of Atomic Layer Deposition:…
-
#ALDALE2020 – The prime conference in the field of atomic scale processing brought to your home
One of the most exciting presentations I saw in last year was given by Rajesh Krishnamurthy, a senior technology analyst of TechInsights. He was invited at the 19th International Conference…
-
ALD in the Netherlands – Special issue of the NEVAC magazine (free): How a small country can be big in nanolayers
The Dutch Vacuum Society – or Nederlandse Vacuümvereniging (NEVAC) – publishes the so-called “NEVAC blad”, a magazine that appears three times a year. The issue for June 2020 just appeared…
-
Atomic layer etching turns 32.5 years old! – A good occasion to share an ALE timeline and an animated version of the ALE periodic table
Last November the method of atomic layer deposition (ALD) turned 45 years old. The date of November 29, 1974 was the priority date for the first patent in the field…
-
Basic insights into ALD conformality – A closer look at ALD and thin film conformality
Note: This post can also be downloaded at the bottom of this page. Please cite as: K. Arts, W.M.M. Kessels and H.C.M Knoops. Basic insights into ALD conformality – A…
-
The ALD/Database: looking back on the first year
Introduction In March 2019 the ALD/Database was introduced to the ALD community on www.atomiclimits.com. The ALD/Database is an initiative by Harm Knoops, Bart Macco, Vincent Vandalon and Erwin Kessels and…
-
Atomic layer deposition turns 45! – The history of ALD in a timeline and an animated version of the ALD periodic table
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has become a very popular method for the preparation of (ultra)thin films over the last two decades, yet it has a rich history which goes back…
-
Plasma ALD – A discussion of mechanisms – Commemorating the career of John Coburn
Undoubtedly, every scientist and technologist working in the field of plasma etching has heard about the research carried out by Coburn and Winters, two research scientists that worked at the…
-
What can Atomic Layer Deposition do for solar cells? – A few afterthoughts from my ALD conference tutorial
At the end of July the annual AVS International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) – combined with the Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) Workshop – took place in Bellevue, Seattle. As…
-
#ALDALE2019: the aftermath… including photos!
The photos in this blog post were made by DIWAS Photography, Seattle Event Photographer Two weeks ago the 19th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition, featuring also the 6th International…
-
Here we go again… the online ALE database! – A website where you can easily search, find, and add ALE processes
It might not be fully unexpected but after launching our online ALD database a few months ago, but now we have now also put together an online database on Atomic…
-
#ALDALE2019 – A preview of my “ALD Innovator Award” plenary presentation at the 19th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition
The 19th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition, featuring also the 6th International Atomic Layer Etching Workshop, is about to start. It will kick-off today (Sunday July 22) with a…
-
Fully self-aligned vias: the killer application for area-selective ALD? – A discussion of the requirements for implementation in high volume manufacturing
Please cite as: A.J.M. Mackus, M.J.M. Merkx. Fully Self-Aligned Vias: The Killer Application for Area-Selective ALD? – A Discussion of the Requirements for Implementation in High Volume Manufacturing. 2019, 7.…
-
And here it is… the online ALD database
– A website where you can easily search, browse, and add ALD processesMany of us ALD researchers have been talking – or even dreaming – about it for some years: an online database listing all ALD materials and processes. And now we…
-
Reviews, reviews, reviews… and another one about ALD! – An update on the status and prospects of plasma ALD
Note: a list of ALD review papers is available at the end. Atomic layer deposition or ALD is amazingly popular these days and this is also reflected by the large…
-
Bridging academia and business – the heart of a successful collaboration in atomic scale processing
Fitting to the contents of this post on collaboration, this post will appear both on Atomic Limits and on the Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology blog. What defines a truly successful…
-
Atomic Layer Deposition Process Development
– 10 steps to successfully develop, optimize and characterize ALD recipesNote: This post can also be downloaded at the bottom of this page. Please cite as: M.F.J. Vos, A.J.M. Mackus, W.M.M. Kessels. Atomic Layer Deposition Process Development – 10 steps…
-
Topographically selective processing
– Taking selectivity up a notch by processing in the 3rd dimensionRecently, the art of processing materials in a selective manner has garnered significant attention. Especially in the past few years, the topic of making atomic scale processing techniques, such as…
-
Overview of all materials prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD)
– An up-to-date and colorful periodic table (to download)As you might have noticed, we have just started a year in which we celebrate the discovery of the Periodic System by Dmitri Mendeleev: 2019 is the 150th anniversary of…
-
Towards Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition with High Selectivity
– Our perspective on area-selective ALDWe just published a perspective article entitled “From the bottom-up: towards area-selective atomic layer deposition with high selectivity”.1 This perspective describes the current status of the field of area-selective atomic…
-
Where do our students and postdocs go? Mainly to ASML?
– About the alumni of the Plasma & Materials Processing research groupWhen evaluating what comes out of a university research group, often the research carried out by the group is given most attention. However, obviously, the most important product of a…
-
In situ Studies of ALD Processes & Reaction Mechanisms
It is the time of the year that the annual AVS International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition combined with the International Atomic Layer Etching Workshop takes place. The location of…
-
Looking back at the passivating contact workshop in Eindhoven (part 3 of 3)
– Novel non-silicon based passivating contact materialsDuring the passivating contact workshop in Eindhoven earlier this year more than 80 people enjoyed several in-depth presentations and discussions on this hot topic in crystalline silicon PV research.…
-
Looking back at the passivating contact workshop in Eindhoven (part 2 of 3)
– Passivating contact materials based on siliconDuring the passivating contact workshop in Eindhoven earlier this year more than 80 people enjoyed several in-depth presentations and discussions on this hot topic in crystalline silicon PV research.…
-
Looking back at the passivating contact workshop in Eindhoven (part 1 of 3)
– Why are passivating contacts for crystalline silicon solar cells needed and how do they work?During the passivating contact workshop in Eindhoven earlier this year more than 80 people enjoyed several in-depth presentations and discussions on this hot topic in crystalline silicon PV research.…
-
The prospects for the use of Al2O3 in solar cells (in 10 questions)
– How we looked at it in 2011At the end of last month – in May – the 2018 edition of the “PERC Solar Cell Technology” report appeared as published by Taiyang news. It is the third…
-
Plasma ALD and substrate biasing
– The impact of energetic ions on film properties“Plasma ions create electronic defects in sensitive substrates as well as generate a large electronic trap density in deposited films, especially detrimental for gate dielectric applications.” This is a sentence…
-
4th Dutch perovskite workshop
Date, time and location of the event The 4th Dutch Perovskite Workshop is scheduled to take place at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) on Friday 29 June 2018. The…
-
Why are solar cell physics important? – How thermodynamics of the selective membrane model help us understand passivating contacts
The title of this post deserves some clarification. Isn’t the answer obvious? You need to understand how solar cells work in order to improve them and physics are the foundation…
-
Flashback to…
Advancing PV: from passivation to contacts
– A passivating contact workshopOn 31 January 2018 more than 80 people from 11 different countries attended the event Advancing PV: from passivation to contacts – A passivating contact workshop. The interesting presentations of the…
-
Surface science aspects of (plasma) ALD reactions
– Extending the legacy of Harold WintersThe fact that Dr. Harold Winters passed away last year – at the age of 83 – has led to initiatives in tribute of Harold and his profound contributions to…
-
Advancing PV: from passivation to contacts
– A passivating contact workshopAim – The goal of this one-day workshop is to provide a platform to learn more about passivating contacts for crystalline silicon solar cells. Unlike the PV conferences where this topic…
-
Stop motion movie of a novel area-selective ALD approach
– Building a film with nanoblocks – literally!As will be clear from many of our posts on this blog(1, 2, 3), area-selective deposition (ASD) is currently an extremely hot research topic. This is mainly because of its…
-
In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry and ALD
– How ellipsometry became a popular technique to monitor ALD film growthSerendipity is often cited as a key factor in scientific innovations. I can fully confirm this as will also be obvious from the subtitle of this blog site: “Blog about…
-
Uniform or Area-Selective ALD of In2O3:H?
– It’s all about nucleationA little while ago I wrote a blog about my PhD project. In this blog, I explained that most of my PhD project revolved around an atomic layer deposition (ALD)…
-
New developments in area selective deposition
– Take-home messages from the 2nd Area Selective Deposition workshop (ASD2017)As announced in our previous blog post on the 2nd area selective deposition (ASD2017) workshop, this post will highlight the new developments in the field of ASD. I will summarize…
-
The solar-powered family car Stella Vie
– a closer look at the solar cellsOn June 21, the Solar Team Eindhoven launched its 5-person, solar-powered family car “Stella Vie”. The car, which has been developed by students at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e),…
-
The dawn of atomic-scale processing
– The growing importance of atomic layer deposition and etchingA few weeks ago, the big news was that the research alliance of IBM, Global Foundries and Samsung unveiled the world’s first 5 nm chip as we could all read…
-
Atomic layer deposition for device integration of graphene
– A just published review paperA new paper from our group has just appeared in Advanced Material Interfaces. In this paper I – together with my colleagues, have reviewed the methods explored to achieve uniform…
-
2nd Area-selective deposition workshop (ASD 2017)
– FlashbackOn April 20-21, the 2nd Area Selective Deposition workshop (ASD 2017) took place in Eindhoven. Here we give a brief flashback of the workshop and include several photographs of the…
-
ALD-enabled nanopatterning: area-selective ALD by area-activation
– Reflecting on ASD 2016 with the ASD 2017 workshop approachingThe 2nd Area Selective Deposition workshop (ASD 2017, link) is approaching quickly now. The workshop will take place in Eindhoven on April 21 and my colleague Adrie Mackus is the…
-
Join the short course on Atomic Layer Deposition!
Prof. Gregory Parsons (North Carolina State University) and Prof. Erwin Kessels (Eindhoven University of Technology) invite you to participate you in their short course on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), at…
-
ALD for Self-Aligned Multiple Patterning (SAxP)
– How litho has become patterning and requires ALDTwo weeks ago I attended the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference in San Jose (February 26 – March 2) and I got so much inspired that I wanted to write a…
-
2nd Area Selective Deposition Workshop
General In collaboration with COST action HERALD, Eindhoven University will host the 2nd Area Selective Deposition workshop (ASD 2017), which will be held on April 20-21, 2017. The aim of…
-
PECVD of amorphous silicon for lithium ion batteries
– How my PhD might be applied in industryRecently I did an interesting discovery: the work that I did during my PhD (1996 – 2000) might be at the basis of a radical new technology to produce anodes…
-
ALD of high-quality hydrogen-doped indium oxide
– a mini-reviewI recently successfully defended my PhD thesis, entitled “Atomic Layer Deposition of Metal Oxide Thin Films for Si Heterojunction Solar Cells”. As the title suggests, I have worked on ALD…
-
Our contributions to the ALD conference now on YouTube!
The recorded presentations of the 16th Atomic Layer Deposition Conference held in Dublin last July are now on YouTube! A list of all recorded presentations can be found on the ALD…
-
Looking down the rabbit hole
– Minisymposium on nanoporosityGeneral Registration is now closed. Aim of the symposium The aim of this mini-symposium is to discuss: the recent advancements in nano-porosity detection in thin films and membranes; the role…
-
ALDfor2D Workshop in Eindhoven
The aim of this one-day workshop is to give an overview of current topics in the field of atomic layer deposition (ALD) for the synthesis and integration of 2D Materials such as…