Atomic Hydrogen Induced Chemical Vapor Deposition of Silicon Oxycarbide Thin Films Derived from Diethoxymethylsilane Precursor

Abstract

Amorphous silicon oxycarbide (a-SiOC:H) films produced by remote plasma RPCVD from diethoxymethylsilane (DEMS) were characterized in terms of their basic properties related to the coatings deposited using conventional plasma enhanced PECVD method. The effect of substrate temperature (T S) on the growth rate, chemical composition, structure, and properties of resulting a-SiOC:H films is reported. Film growth is an adsorption-controlled process, wherein two mechanisms can be distinguished with a transition at about T S =70 C. Depending on the temperature, films of different nature can be obtained, from polymer-like to highly crosslinked material with C-Si-O network. The chemical structure of a-SiOC:H films was characterized by FTIR, 13 C and 29 Si solid-state NMR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopes. The a-SiOC:H films were also characterized in terms of their density, refractive index, surface morphology, conformality of coverage, hardness, adhesion to a substrate, and friction coefficient. The films were found to be morphologically homogeneous materials exhibiting good conformality of coverage and small surface roughness. Their refractive index exhibits anomalous effect revealing a minimum value at T S =125 C. Due to their exceptional physical properties a-SiOC:H films produced by RPCVD from DEMS precursor seems to be useful as potential dielectric materials or coatings for various encapsulation applications. K E Y W O R D S a-SiOC:H films, remote hydrogen plasma CVD, diethoxymethylsilane, mechanical properties, optical properties 1 | INTRODUCTION Nowadays, silicon oxycarbide materials (SiOC), also referred to as hybrid organosilicate glasses (OSG), processed from small organosilane precursors have attracted researchers' attention due to their many interesting properties, such as: thermal stability, dielectric constant of adjustable value from 2.4 to 3.9, very low absorption coefficient, wide band gap, tuneable refractive index, high hardness and elastic modulus, low residual stress and resistance to oxidation. [1-5] The main potential applications of silicon oxycarbide materials include light

Controlling of Chemical Bonding Structure, Wettability, Optical Characteristics of SiCN:H (SiC:H) Films Produced by PECVD Using Tetramethylsilane and Ammonia Mixture

“…The values of growth rate decreased with rise of deposition temperature from 33 to 20 nm/min for TMS/He mixture, and from 25 to 13 nm/min for TMS/NH 3 mixture. This tendency is typical for the PECVD process and was observed in different precursors [47][48][49][50]. Two main factors contribute to the tendency: the lowering of adsorption of film-forming precursors onto the growth surface with rise of deposition temperature, and the densification of the film due to the thermally induced elimination of organic moieties that is confirmed by FTIR and EDX data.…”

Effect of hydrogen flow rate on properties of silicon oxycarbide thin films via hot wire chemical vapor deposition

“…TEOS serves as a precursor containing silicon and oxygen. Elevated rates of hydrogen deposition play a crucial role in diminishing the oxide species present on the surface 31 . Reduction reactions facilitated by hydrogen have the capacity to transform silicon oxide into elemental silicon, thereby augmenting the overall Si 2p XPS signal.…”

“…Elevated rates of hydrogen deposition play a crucial role in diminishing the oxide species present on the surface. 31 Reduction reactions facilitated by hydrogen have the capacity to transform silicon oxide into elemental silicon, thereby augmenting the overall Si 2p XPS signal. Moreover, hydrogen can play a role in surface activation, preparing the silicon substrate for subsequent deposition.…”

Novel Solid Silicon Oxycarbide Unmodified Carbon Nanotube Composite Coating: Structure, Topography and Mechanical Properties

“…Unfortunately, the creation of such a composite can be difficult due to synthesis routes of silicon oxycarbide. The two main synthesis procedures focus on different deposition methods, such as chemical vapor deposition and derivative techniques [6,7] or annealing of preceramic polymeric precursors in an oxygenfree atmosphere at at least 800 • C [8]. These precursors can be commercially available siloxanes [9,10], networked siloxanes [11,12] or silsesquioxanes obtained from various monomers via the sol-gel method [13][14][15].…”