AVS 46th International Symposium
    Thin Films Division Monday Sessions
       Session TF-MoM

Paper TF-MoM10
Deposition of Silicon Oxide Films using a Remote Thermal Plasma

Monday, October 25, 1999, 11:20 am, Room 615

Session: Fundamentals of PECVD
Presenter: M.F.A.M. van Hest, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Authors: M.C.M. van de Sanden, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
M.F.A.M. van Hest, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
D.C. Schram, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
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A cascaded arc (p=0.1 – 0.2 bar) has been used to generate a remote thermal argon plasma, which expands into a vacuum vessel (p=0.1 mbar). In this expanding thermal argon plasma oxygen is injected at the arc nozzle. Downstream HMDSO (hexamethyldisiloxane) is injected as a precursor. The cascaded arc as a plasma source has some big advantages in comparison to the more conventional techniques (i.e. CVD). The first advantage is that the deposition rate obtained is much higher with the use of the cascade arc (>100 nm/s) than with the use of conventional techniques (couple of nm/s). The second advantage is that the deposition rate does decrease with increasing substrate temperature. Therefore it is not necessary to heat the substrate to very high temperatures (>500°C) before the film can be deposited. The deposited films have been analysed using in situ ellipsometry, elastic recoil detection (ERD), and in situ Fourier transform infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy. Ellipsometry shows that the deposited films have good optical properties. FTIR absorption spectrosopy measurements as well as ERD measurements show that the deposited films contain carbon. To get a better understanding of the film growth, in situ FTIR reflection absorption spectroscopy measurements are done. The effect of post deposition plasma exposure is discussed. The gas phase of the depositing plasma has been analysed by means of mass spectrometry and gas phase FTIR absorption spectroscopy. These measurements show that in the gas phase new stable species (i.e. C@sub 2@H@sub 2@) are created.