Up-scaling sALD to
speed up the energy transition

At Holst Centre, we have successfully scaled-up spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (sALD) to large areas in sheet-to-sheet (S2S) and roll-to-roll (R2R) equipment. This technology offers great potential for industry partners who contribute to the global energy transition.

Manufacturers of solar panels and batteries as well as their customers, such as the automotive industry, aim for higher returns in energy conversion, more efficient power consumption, higher energy storage capacity combined with shorter charging times and a longer product lifespan. In all these growth markets, short production times against the lowest possible costs are essential for success. Scientific testing has shown that our spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (sALD) technology can play a decisive role in the large-scale production of flexible solar cells, batteries, OLED lighting, sensors and displays. It offers the same uniformity and control precision of film thickness and composition as traditional atomic layer deposition (ALD), but at much higher deposition rates: around 1 nm/s.

Roll-to-roll concept

To optimize the sALD process for a higher throughput and larger area, we designed a roll-to-roll spatial ALD concept in which a polymer foil is transported over a drum that houses injector slits for the reactive precursors, separated by inert gas. By moving both the web and the drum, a thin ALD-film is applied on the polymer foil at high deposition rates. As spatial ALD is a conformal technique, we can achieve highly uniform layers even for structures with an extreme aspect ratio. The technology is ready to be integrated into commercial production of e.g., thin-film solid-state batteries, optical stacks, thin-film photovoltaics and semiconductor and dielectric layer stacks for a host of large-area applications.

Over 10 years experience

At Holst Centre, we have more than 10 years of experience in Spatial ALD technology development and upscaling. This means we can bring sALD from the lab to fab. Our R&D facilities include demonstrators and pilot-scale roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet SALD equipment. In addition, we have extensive IP and knowhow available, and we are connected to a large network of equipment companies, precursor suppliers and users. This means we can help you realize Spatial ALD solutions for your applications in terms of process development, device performance and integration, throughput and cost of ownership.

Promising applications

We are uniquely able to combine these varied technologies into tailored, optimized process flows for the creation of transistors, optical and microfluidics structures, opto-electrical devices, and more. This helps our industry partners to quickly realize applications in domains as diverse as medical imaging and bioelectronics. The most promising applications we see at the moment are organ-on-a-chip, and microfluidics.