“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 that I read about 10 years ago (in January 2007

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 of that understanding, right? We suspect that most people would

Surface science aspects of (plasma) ALD reactions
– Extending the legacy of Harold Winters
The 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 plasma science. One of these initiatives is a Special Issue

In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry and ALD
– How ellipsometry became a popular technique to monitor ALD film growth
Serendipity 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 strategy, serendipity and vision in nanoscience”. From my point of

Uniform or Area-Selective ALD of In2O3:H?
– It’s all about nucleation
A 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) process that I developed to make hydrogen-doped indium oxide (In2O3:H):

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 my take-home messages from the workshop by discussing three topics

The solar-powered family car Stella Vie
– a closer look at the solar cells
On 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), will take part in the cruiser class event of the

2nd Area-selective deposition workshop (ASD 2017)
– Flashback
On 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 meeting, including a group photo of the participants. The workshop

ALD-enabled nanopatterning: area-selective ALD by area-activation
– Reflecting on ASD 2016 with the ASD 2017 workshop approaching
The 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 main organizer. With the upcoming workshop in mind, I thought

ALD for Self-Aligned Multiple Patterning (SAxP)
– How litho has become patterning and requires ALD
Two 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 blog about it. It was my second time at this