AVS 50th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS1-WeA

Invited Paper PS1-WeA1
PECVD of Thin Films: The Study of the Plasma-surface Interaction by Means of In Situ Plasma and Film Diagnostics

Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 2:00 pm, Room 314

Session: Mechanisms in Plasma-Surface Interactions
Presenter: M.C.M. van de Sanden, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Correspondent: Click to Email
Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is now a well established technique to obtain various high quality films for e.g. micro-electronic, photovoltaic, scratch resistant or abrasive applications. Although widely applied in industry, fundamental knowledge on the actual plasma deposition mechanism is to a large extent unknown. The reason is the complexity of the problem: to unravel the deposition mechanism requires a simultaneous investigation of the plasma phase, the plasma-surface interaction and the film properties using in situ plasma and film diagnostics. The need to understand the mechanism is evident since the development and design of new functional materials and up scaling of the technique to large areas involves detailed and generic knowledge of the plasma-surface interaction. In this talk I will discuss the approach our group has undertaken to investigate the deposition mechanism of a limited number of model systems: the fast plasma deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon, carbon and silicone films utilizing a remotely expanding thermal plasma. I will discuss the measurement of radical and ion densities using sensitive plasma diagnostics such as cavity ring down spectroscopy and (modulated beam) appearance potential mass spectrometry. From measurements using the time-resolved version of these diagnostics, taken in the afterglow of a small perturbation of the plasma, plasma and surface reaction probabilities of selected radicals are determined. The results are compared with molecular dynamics simulations of the plasma-surface interaction and are discussed in relation to in situ characterizations of the chemical and structural composition of the film surface of the growing film.