Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (SALD) is a new process that is faster and less expensive than ALD, which opens new fiels of industrial applications for flexible and large substrates (OLEDs, flat displays, photovoltaic cells…).
In Spatial ALD the classical sequence of precursor injection + purge is replaced by an alternative approach in which the different precursors are constantly being supplied and kept a part by inert gas barriers while the sample moves between the different precursor zones.
As a result , ALD becomes up to 2 orders of magnitude faster than conventional temporal ALD, it can easily be operated in ambient conditions (atmospheric pressure, no vacuum) and it is very easily scalable and compatible with high throughput processing techniques such as Roll-to-Roll (R2R)
Refs:
* D. Muñoz-Rojas and J. MacManus-Driscoll, Spatial atmospheric atomic layer deposition: a new laboratory and industrial tool for low-cost photovoltaics, Materials Horizons, 2014, 1, 314 DOI: 10.1039/C3MH00136A * CNRS / INC : En direct des laboratoires (Juin 2014)