Polymer residue cleaning by metal-induced catalytic decomposition

Monolayer MX₂ (transition metal dichalcogenides) are considered as alternative channel materials for advanced CMOS devices. The construction of CMOS transistors requires to develop a contact module, which aims at establishing an electrical connection between the MX₂ layer and the outer world. In our lab flow, the main difficulty of the contact fabrication module is the presence of residual polymers coming from the transfer step, hindering good electrical connection between the MX2 film and the deposited metal. The goal of the master thesis is to investigate metal-induced catalytic decomposition of the polymer residues, which is anticipated to result from O* radical generation, due to preferential molecular dissociation at the metal-polymer interface. Within the project, the effect of oxidative/reductive ambient, annealing temperature and time, metal and polymer nature, will be studied. The damage to the MX₂ will be studied in parallel.

Reference: V. Lasonen et al., Chemistry of Materials 2023 35 (15), 6097-6108 [doi: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c01185]