Abstract: ALD has recently attracted increasing interest due to its capability to deposit a large variety of elemental and compound materials on diverse substrates, covering high aspect ratios features with depositions rates that are also industrially appealing. Purpose of the present seminar is to introduce the audience to ALD by comparing it with more widely known growth techniques like chemical vapour and physical transport deposition based methods to pinpoints its key strong and weak aspects. Then examples of the properties of oxide layers grown by ALD will be presented with focus on the structural, intentional and unintentional doping and electrical characteristics of the deposited films as a comparison with the expected properties on the basis of the ALD growth mechanism.