Picodeon releases automated cold ablation pulsed laser deposition system

Ii, Finland – Finnish thin film coating specialist Picodeon Ltd Oy has developed what is reportedly the world’s first production equipment for the use of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in volume manufacturing. The Picodeon ColdAb Series 4 thin film deposition system was developed in cooperation with PVD Products of Wilmington, MA.

The ColdAb Series 4 system delivers industrial-scale PLD coating production of 4-inch wafer sizes, including the fully-automated delivery of substrates to the pre-clean chamber and to the main Coldab coating chamber, which enables large-area thin-film coating deposition using a high frequency picosecond laser. This has not been possible before at this scale, as conventional PLD has lower growth rate compared to Picodeon's process, says the company. The benefits of the cold ablation process are a smooth and particle-free surface and that the target material’s stoichiometry may be fully transferred to the thin film on the substrate. This is an important issue. for instance, with oxides and composites.

The system provides multilayer deposition capability for a wide variety of materials including oxides, metals, and several composites and also enables temperature-sensitive polymers to be coated. Picodeon will use the system to commercialize new applications based on a wide range of coating materials including its patented Nicanite graphitic carbon nitride. Precious metals such as gold (Au) and oxides for the semiconductor and sensor industries are in the development roadmap, and the company is looking for industrial partners to join these projects.

The first ColdAb Series4 system will be available in January 2014. The trailer is available on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgCTQ2qlxR0.