AVS 49th International Symposium
    Photonic Materials Topical Conference Thursday Sessions
       Session PH-ThA

Paper PH-ThA9
High Density Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of SiOxNy for Optical Applications: Influence of Process Parameters

Thursday, November 7, 2002, 4:40 pm, Room C-111B

Session: Optical Lightguides
Presenter: P. Bulkin, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
Authors: P. Bulkin, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
D. Daineka, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
G. Girard, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
J.-E. Bourée, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
B. Drévillon, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France
Correspondent: Click to Email
Rapid development of integrated optics made necessary the development of the technology for fast deposition of high quality optical films that can be used as a base for waveguide fabrication. Such process shall not only produce silica films with low scattering and absorption in the communication window (1.3-1.6 microns) but also allow doping of the silica in order to create graded refractive index profiles and, maybe even convert it to active media. High-density plasma sources for PECVD, such as ECR, helicons and inductively coupled sources, are prime candidates considered for those applications. However, a process window for high density PECVD needs to be optimised for the deposition of films with thickness of several tens of microns. The deposition systems should also incorporate self-cleaning capabilities. We report in this work on extensive studies of a recently developed matrix distributed electron cyclotron resonance (MDECR) concept for the deposition of silica and silicon oxynitride films. We investigated influence of substrate temperature, microwave power, position and type of gas injection, gas composition and bias on the properties of material grown in such deposition system. Self cleaning by C2F6/O2 plasma was also studied. We show that the MDECR concept can be a technology of choice for the deposition of waveguide structures for integrated optical components.