About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Fundamental Science of Microstructural Evolution and Phase Transformations: An MPMD/FMD/SMD Symposium in Honor of Peter Voorhees
|
| Presentation Title |
Phase-field Modeling of Polycrystalline Microstructure Formation and Evolution in Nanoelectronic Thin Film Processing |
| Author(s) |
Hwanwook Lee, Ali muhamad hassaan, Daeun Choi, Yongwoo Kwon |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Hwanwook Lee |
| Abstract Scope |
As-deposited thin films are typically amorphous and are crystallized by post-annealing, a process known as solid-phase crystallization (SPC), which is critical in semiconductor manufacturing. For example, SPC of polysilicon is used in 3D NAND, a vertically stacked flash memory technology, where polysilicon films within nanoholes act as channels. Larger grains enhance carrier mobility, whereas they can also increase cell variability. Thermal grooves degrade carrier mobility. Process engineers always struggle to optimize grain size and to reduce thermal grooves. While semiconductor simulators, known as TCAD, are widely used in industry, they are not able to simulate microstructural evolution. In this presentation, we will demonstrate our phase-field model for thin film growth and microstructure formation—namely, deposition and crystallization followed by grain growth—considering process conditions such as incoming flux, surface reactions, nucleation and growth probabilities, and so on, along with an application to the polysilicon channel of 3D NAND. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Computational Materials Science & Engineering, Phase Transformations, Thin Films and Interfaces |