Producer Viva Radical Treatment

As AI and high-performance computing push transistor architectures toward ever tighter geometries, device performance is increasingly limited by the physical condition of the silicon channel itself. The nanosheets in gate-all-around (GAA) transistor structures demand exceptionally smooth and pristine nanosheet surfaces–just a few angstroms of roughness and impurities can result to interface trap densities, degrading carrier mobility and overall transistor speed.

The Applied Materials Producer^™ Viva^™ radical treatment system directly addresses this challenge through angstrom level precision engineering of these nanosheet surfaces. At the core of Viva is a patented ion‑free radical delivery architecture that generates reactive pure radical species, whose isotropic nature enables uniform and highly conformal surface treatments in deeply buried non-line of sight transistor structures, while simultaneously eliminating ion plasma-related structural damage. 

As the radical species reduce the surface energy requirements needed for atomic silicon migration across the nanosheet surface and scavenge any unwanted impurities, a plasma-decoupled independently controlled multizone heater enables optimization of the surface reaction kinetics to prevent unwanted nanosheet material loss. By delivering a gentle purely radical process with independent surface kinetics control, the Viva system not only smoothens channels, reduces interface trap densities and improves the physical surface condition of GAA nanosheets, but it also ensures structural integrity of these delicate, complex 3D structures.

As logic design transitions from FinFET to GAA and ultimately to more advanced device architectures such as CFETs, channel surface quality will continue to be a primary determinant of transistor performance. A pristine, highly uniform nanosheet surface dramatically enhances the channel’s electron mobility, which plays a central role in determining how fast transistors can switch on and off, resulting in faster, more energy-efficient transistors engineered to meet the demands of next-generation AI chips. Viva’s angstrom level precision surface engineering capability provides a scalable, production ready solution that enables transistor performance for the AI era.