Optical and electrical properties of LPCVD silicon oxynitride films on silicon

Structural analysis of silicon oxynitride films deposited by PECVD

“…Silicon oxynitride films have nowadays assumed great importance for the development of various microelectronic and optical devices, such as: waveguides, TFT transistors, and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) [1][2][3][4]. This material offers some advantages as thin gate dieletric in microelectronic devices in comparison to SiO 2 , i.e.…”

“…There are many different techniques to obtain silicon oxynitride [1,3,6,13,17,18], but the PECVD technique is particularly interesting due to the possibility of a good control of the chemical composition and a wide range control of the deposition rate by changing the parameters of deposition at low temperatures (320 8C), very important characteristics for the integration of micro-opto-electromechanical structures (MOEMS) [9,[19][20][21][22][23].…”

PECVD deposition and characterization of silicon oxynitride for optical applications

“…This opens up the possibility for miniaturizing integrated photonic systems [3]. Moreover, the silicon-oxynitride (SiON) deposited by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) exhibits high deposition rate and good homogeneity with a wide range of refractive index tuning thus making it a well-suited core layer for planar waveguide technologies as well as microphotonic devices [4,5,6]. Furthermore, because of its chemical inertness , its low permeability compared to silicon nitride and its superior dielectric properties in relation to silicon dioxide, makes SiON a relatively superior material of choice for silicon technology.…”

“…Furthermore, because of its chemical inertness , its low permeability compared to silicon nitride and its superior dielectric properties in relation to silicon dioxide, makes SiON a relatively superior material of choice for silicon technology. Additionally, PECVD deposition of SiON is preferred over low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) [4] due to the ability to synthesize films thicker than two microns and the freedom to tune the film properties given the large PECVD parameter space. Moreover, PECVD enables film growth at very low temperatures, making it possible to easily deposit on low melting point metallic layers.…”

Deposition of silicon oxynitride at room temperature by Inductively Coupled Plasma-CVD

“…Their traditional deposition processes have several drawbacks: high temperatures are needed, they induce high mechanical stresses and have a low deposition rate [5]. Plasma assisted processes may produce films of similar characteristics at much lower temperatures [2,6].…”