Non-Heat Assistance Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of SiC_xN_yO_zFilm Using Monomethylsilane, Nitrogen and Argon

Abstract

Without any heating assistance, a gas mixture of monomethylsilane, nitrogen and argon was used at 10–20 Pa for 5 min for forming a SiCxNyOz film under parallel plate plasma. By this process, a dense film thicker than 100 nm could be obtained. The film thickness could be expressed by an overall rate expression consisting of the gas partial pressures at the inlet. Based on the obtained equation, the dominant process for film formation was evaluated to be the result of the deposition and the etching. By calculation using a similar form, the film contents of silicon, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen could be reproduced. Thus, the film thickness and the contents were controllable by the technique developed in this study.

Electric Current in Rate Equation for Parallel Plate Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition of SiCxNyOz Film without Heat Assistance

“…In order to enable a systematic study of the complicated process, the equations consisting of the partial pressures of the precursors and their cross terms were developed and evaluated in a previous study. 5 The obtained multiterm equations showed linear relationships between the experiment and calculation. Additionally, the role of each term was related to the deposition and etching.…”

“…This reactor was similar to that used in previous studies. 4,5 The substrate was a 10-mm wide and 10-mm long aluminum plate. The substrate was placed on the bottom electrode.…”

“…Following the previous study, 5 the combinations of the simplified chemical reaction paths are preferred in order to obtain a simple and practical equation in contrast to the studies taking into account the many elemental reactions. [8][9][10][11][12] For the parallel plate system, Fig.…”

“…[1][2][3] In order to produce such coating films at low temperatures, the room temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) process has been studied. 4,5 The PECVD process is considered to be influenced by various parameters, such as the partial gas pressures and electric current. Additionally, the precursors may interact with each other to cause the deposition and etching of the film.…”

“…While the electric current was fixed for simplification in the previous study, 5 it should be taken into account as one of the most influential factors. In this study for further development, the electric current was thus introduced to the equations for describing the thickness and the concentrations of the silicon, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen of the SiC x N y O z film, which was formed by the PECVD process without any heating assistance.…”