Linde is the leader for the production and supply of stable isotopes for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. As the critical dimensions decrease to atomic scale, individual isotopes have distinct chemical and physical behavior. Isotopically pure thin films have enhanced properties and mitigate against risks attributable to undesirable isotopes.
Deuterium for hot carrier passivation
Even thinner films are subject to damage from hot carrier effects at their interfaces from locally high electric fields. Linde has developed several deuterium-based products, which help our customers manage these new demands and can improve the life of the device by up to 50 times.
- Deuterium (D2)
- Deuterated silane (SiD4)
- Deuterated ammonia (ND3)
Boron enrichment to avoid thermal neutron damage
Linde has also introduced boron 11 enriched diborane as an alternative to natural (non-enriched) diborane. The elimination of boron 10 from diborane in small-scale devices is essential to increasing the life of the device and the reduction of soft error rates.
- Boron 11 enriched boron trifluoride (11BF3)
- Boron 11 enriched diborane (11B2H6)
Methane carbon-12 enrichment for enhanced thermal conductivity
Linde supplies the carbon-12 enriched CH4 methane molecule, which the CVD process uses to make a thin film diamond or graphene. Isotopically pure carbon thin films have greatly enhanced thermal conductivity vs. naturally abundant thin films.
- 12C Diamond (99.9 atom%) - Over 8 times that of copper and over 1.5 that of natural abundance diamonds
- 12C Graphene (99.9 atom%) - Over 10 times that of copper and over 1.5 that of natural abundance graphenes
An innovative approach to both the manufacture and purification of isotope products enables Linde to meet the challenging requirements of all advanced materials applications.