Mechanical and optical properties of hard SiCN coatings prepared by PECVD

Jedrzejowski, P.; Čı́žek, J.; Amassian, Aram; Klemberg-Sapieha, J.E.; Vlček, Jaroslav; Martinů, L.

doi:10.1016/s0040-6090(03)01057-5

Cited by 153 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In view of the RBS and ERDA data for the film deposited at T S ¼ 300 8C its atomic composition is as follows; It is worth noting that the oxygen contamination (ranging from 8 at.-% to 40 at.-%) is also reported for SiCN films produced by plasma CVD. [6,[19][20][21] Thus, the results of FTIR, XPS, RBS, and ERDA analyses prove that the investigated films are hydrogenated silicon carbonitride materials. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) examination of SiCN films revealed that the surface was very smooth, defect-free, and exhibited an excellent morphological homogeneity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 59%

Silicon Carbonitride (SiCN) Films by Remote Hydrogen Microwave Plasma CVD from Tris(dimethylamino)silane as Novel Single‐Source Precursor

Wróbel

Blaszczyk-Lezak

Uznański

et al. 2010

Chemical Vapor Deposition

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Owing to a complex structure composed of carbidic Si-C and nitridic Si-N and C-N units, silicon carbonitride (SiCN) films display many unique properties. They are promising coating materials in advanced technology. Most recent reports [1][2][3][4][5][6] revealed many unique features of SiCN films which may be used as hard, dense, and high temperatureand corrosion-resistant coatings for metals (giving excellent tribological behavior), as well as highly selective gas separation membranes. [7] Of the various methods based on the gas-phase processes which are used for the formation of SiCN films, remote microwave plasma (RP)CVD from organosilicon precursors, developed in our laboratory, appeared to be a very useful technique, offering wellcontrolled deposition conditions free of film-damaging effects.[2]In this communication we report on the fabrication of amorphous SiCN films by RPCVD using hydrogen as an upstream gas for microwave plasma generation, and tris(dimethylamino)silane (TrDMAS), (Me 2 N) 3 SiH, as a novel single-source precursor, being a carrier of Si-N and C-N units. Owing to the presence of hydrosilyl, Si-H bonds in the TrDMAS molecule, this precursor is strongly reactive with hydrogen atoms fed from the plasma region to the CVD reactor. Moreover, the dimethylaminosilyl, Me 2 NSi, groups of the precursor may easily undergo a condensation reaction at elevated temperatures. The present study was undertaken in view of our earlier reports on the SiCN films produced by RPCVD from other aminosilane precursors, such as (dimethylamino)dimethylsilane, [8][9][10] Me 2 NSiHMe 2 , and bis(dimethylamino)methylsilane, [11,12] (Me 2 N) 2 SiHMe, which revealed their very promising useful properties. We describe the effect of substrate temperature on the growth rate, chemical structure, surface morphology, density, and photoluminescence of produced SiCN films. Figure 1 shows the effect of thermal activation on the kinetics of SiCN film growth from TrDMAS characterized by the substrate temperature, T S , dependency of the thickness-based film growth rate, r d , determined in the form of an Arrhenius plot. The decrease of r d with increasing T S (Fig. 1) and the negative value of the apparent activation energy E a ¼ À14 kJ mol À1 calculated from the slope of the Arrhenius plot, implies that film growth is mainly limited by the adsorption of film-forming precursors from the gas phase onto the growth surface. In this case, the apparent activation energy is expressed as E a ¼ E r þ DH ad , where E r denotes the activation energy of the film-forming reaction and DH ad is the apparent heat of adsorption of the film-forming precursors onto the growth surface and has a negative value, [13,14] thus the negative E a values are due to the fact that the absolute DH ad value is higher than the E r value.

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mentioning

confidence: 59%

Silicon Carbonitride (SiCN) Films by Remote Hydrogen Microwave Plasma CVD from Tris(dimethylamino)silane as Novel Single‐Source Precursor

Wróbel

Blaszczyk-Lezak

Uznański

et al. 2010

Chemical Vapor Deposition

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“…This material exhibits high hardness, [1±10] low friction coefficient, [7,9] strong adhesion to the substrate, [8] wide optical bandgap, [1,11±13] good field emission characteristics, [14±16] low electrical conductivity, [12,13] and outstanding high temperature oxidation resistance. [17] In view of these properties, Si:C:N films are very promising coatings for a wide range of technological applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silicon Carbonitride Films Produced by Remote Hydrogen Microwave Plasma CVD Using a (Dimethylamino)dimethylsilane Precursor

Blaszczyk-Lezak

Wróbel²,

Kivitorma

et al. 2005

Chem. Vap. Deposition

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Amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbonitride (a-Si:C:N:H) films were produced by remote microwave hydrogen plasma CVD (RP-CVD) using (dimethylamino)dimethylsilane as a single-source precursor. The reactivity of the precursor with atomic hydrogen was characterized using (dimethylamino)trimethylsilane as a model compound. The effects of the substrate temperature (T S ) on the kinetics of the RP-CVD process, and the chemical composition and structure of the resulting film, have been investigated. The temperature dependencies of the mass-and thickness-based film growth rates imply that, for a low substrate temperature range (T S = 30±100 C), film growth is limited by desorption of film-forming precursors, whereas in a high substrate temperature range (T S = 100±400 C) film growth is independent of the temperature, and the rate of RP-CVD is masstransport limited. The increase of the substrate temperature from 30 C to 400 C causes the elimination of organic moieties from the film and the formation of a Si±N and Si±C network structure. The films produced at T S = 300 C were found to be dense materials exhibiting excellent morphological homogeneity, high hardness, and an extremely low friction coefficient. In view of these properties, a-Si:C:N:H films produced by RP-CVD seem to be promising coatings for tribological use.

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“…It is mostly known as a material for wear-resistant coatings due to its high corrosion and oxidation resistance, [50] but it also has uses in microelectronics and optics. [51,52] As a ternary compound its material properties are highly dependent on the elemental composition. When it comes to medical applications, especially the favorable SiN x -like mechanical properties and the potentially tunable dissolution rate make SiC x N y a prominent candidate for a coating material to be used in joint implants.…”

Section: Silicon Carbonitridementioning

confidence: 99%

“…When it comes to medical applications, especially the favorable SiN x -like mechanical properties and the potentially tunable dissolution rate make SiC x N y a prominent candidate for a coating material to be used in joint implants. [13,53] The synthesis methods most commonly employed are pyrolysis of pre-ceramic polymers, [54,55], CVD, [51,56] and PVD. [57,58] Various target-reactive gas combinations are possible for magnetron sputtering of SiC x N y .…”

Section: Silicon Carbonitridementioning

confidence: 99%

“…[59] Due to the wide range of synthesis methods, the SiC x N y film properties vary Introduction remarkably. Hardness values under 10 GPa are common for hydrogen-containing carbon-rich SiC x N y films, [66] whereas some films can have hardnesses over 30 GPa [51]. Similarly, mass density shows a wide range of values from under 2 g/cm…”

Section: Silicon Carbonitridementioning

confidence: 99%

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Silicon Nitride Based Coatings Grown by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Hänninen¹

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Silicon nitride and silicon nitride-based ceramics have several favorable material properties, such as high hardness and good wear resistance, which makes them important materials for the coating industry. This thesis focuses the synthesis of silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, and silicon carbonitride thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering. The films were characterized based on their chemical composition, chemical bonding structure, and mechanical properties to link the growth conditions to the film properties. Silicon nitride films were synthesized by reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) from a Si target in Ar/N 2 atmospheres, whereas silicon oxynitride films were grown by using nitrous oxide as the reactive gas. Silicon carbonitride was synthesized by two different methods. The first method was using acetylene (C 2 H 2 ) in addition to N 2 in a Si HiPIMS process and the other was co-sputtering of Si and C, using HiPIMS for Si and direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) for graphite targets in an Ar/N 2 atmosphere. Langmuir probe measurements were carried out for the silicon nitride and silicon oxynitride processes and positive ion mass spectrometry for the silicon nitride processes to gain further understanding on the plasma conditions during film growth. The target current and voltage waveforms of the reactive HiPIMS processes were evaluated.The main deposition parameter affecting the nitrogen concentration of silicon nitride films was found to be the nitrogen content in the plasma. Films with nitrogen contents of 50 at.% were deposited at N 2 /Ar flow ratios of 0.3 and above. These films showed Si−N as the dominating component in Si 2p X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) core level spectra and Si−Si bonds were absent. The substrate temperature and target power were found to affect the nitrogen content to a lower extent. The residual stress and hardness of the films were found to increase with the film nitrogen content. Another factors influencing the coating stress were the process pressure, negative substrate bias, substrate temperature, and HiPIMS pulse energy. Silicon nitride coatings with good adhesion and low levels of compressive residual stress were grown by using a pressure of 600 mPa, a substrate temperature iii iv below 200 ℃, pulse energies below 2.5 Ws, and negative bias voltages up to 100 V.The elemental composition of silicon oxynitride films was shown to depend on the target power settings as well as on the nitrous oxide flow rate. Silicon oxide-like films were synthesized under poisoned target surface conditions, whereas films deposited in the transition regime between poisoned and metallic conditions showed higher nitrogen concentrations. The nitrogen content of the films deposited in the transition region was controlled by the applied gas flow rate. The applied target power did not affect the nitrogen concentration in the transition regime, while the oxygen content increased at decreasing target powers. The chemical composition of the films was show...

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Mechanical and optical properties of hard SiCN coatings prepared by PECVD

Cited by 153 publications

References 37 publications

Silicon Carbonitride (SiCN) Films by Remote Hydrogen Microwave Plasma CVD from Tris(dimethylamino)silane as Novel Single‐Source Precursor

Silicon Carbonitride (SiCN) Films by Remote Hydrogen Microwave Plasma CVD from Tris(dimethylamino)silane as Novel Single‐Source Precursor

Silicon Carbonitride Films Produced by Remote Hydrogen Microwave Plasma CVD Using a (Dimethylamino)dimethylsilane Precursor

Silicon Nitride Based Coatings Grown by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

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