Lam Research and CEA-Leti Expand Deposition R&D with Pulsed Laser and Molybdenum ALD Systems
By NineScrolls Team · 2026-03-17 · 2 min read · Industry
Table of Contents
- The Expanded Partnership
- Prestis Pulsed Laser Deposition
- ALTUS Halo Molybdenum ALD
- Research Focus Areas
- Financial Context
The Expanded Partnership
On February 2, 2026, Lam Research and France's CEA-Leti announced a new multi-year agreement to advance the fabrication of next-generation specialty technology devices. The collaboration covers MEMS, 3D imaging and sensors, power management, RF solutions, photonics, and optical interconnect technologies.
Lam will pair its etch and deposition capabilities with CEA-Leti's materials analysis, surface science, and device characterization expertise. The goal is to understand how process developments affect materials properties and device performance at the atomic level.
Prestis Pulsed Laser Deposition
Integral to the collaboration is Lam's Prestis pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system. PLD uses high-energy laser pulses to ablate target materials and deposit thin films with precise atomic layer control. The technique is particularly effective for complex multi-elemental materials that are difficult to deposit with conventional CVD or sputtering methods.
Prestis will be used to explore novel compound semiconductor materials for higher-efficiency devices, specifically targeting next-generation RF filters, electro-optic modulation, and quantum optics applications.
ALTUS Halo Molybdenum ALD
Separately, Lam's ALTUS Halo system—the world's first production atomic layer deposition tool for molybdenum—is competing directly with Applied Materials' Spectral ALD in the race to replace tungsten contacts at 2nm and beyond. Molybdenum provides lower resistivity at nanoscale contact dimensions, a critical advantage as transistor contacts shrink with each new node.
The tungsten-to-molybdenum transition represents one of the most significant material changes in decades and is expected to generate billions in new ALD equipment demand through the end of the decade.
Research Focus Areas
The joint program targets several compound semiconductor applications that rely on precision deposition:
RF filters for 5G and 6G communications require piezoelectric thin films with tightly controlled stoichiometry. Electro-optic modulators for silicon photonics demand films with specific crystalline orientations. Quantum optics devices need defect-free thin films with atomic-level purity. In each case, the deposition process is the enabling step.
Financial Context
Lam Research reported Q4 2025 revenue of $5.34 billion, representing 22.1 percent year-over-year growth. The company attributed the increase to surging demand for its deposition and etch platforms driven by advanced memory and logic node transitions.