AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS+TF-WeM

Paper PS+TF-WeM3
Amorphous Carbon Thin Films Deposition by Pulsed Substrate Biased PECVD using a CH@sub 4@-CO@sub 2@ Gas Mixture

Wednesday, November 2, 2005, 9:00 am, Room 302

Session: Plasma Enhanced CVD and ALD
Presenter: G. Gottardi, ITC-Irst (Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica), Italy
Authors: G. Gottardi, ITC-Irst (Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica), Italy
N. Laidani, ITC-Irst (Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica), Italy
L. Calliari, ITC-Irst (Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica), Italy
M. Filippi, ITC-Irst (Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica), Italy
R.S. Brusa, Università di Trento, Italy
C. Macchi, Università di Trento, Italy
S. Mariazzi, Università di Trento, Italy
M. Anderle, ITC-Irst (Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica), Italy
Correspondent: Click to Email
Various plasma-assisted deposition techniques and carbon bearing source materials have been investigated and can be used for the synthesis of a-C:H films. In particular, radio frequency (RF) plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) systems are the most common type employed, over a broad range of process conditions which are generally recognized to strongly influence the material properties. This research work intends to explore new perspectives in the hard carbon films production via PECVD, through the use of non-traditional gas precursors (CH@sub 4@-CO@sub 2@) and a voltage pulsing technology applied externally simultaneously to the film growth. The modulation of the substrate bias, when applied in a pulsed mode, provides in fact with more operative opportunities, broadening the process parameters set with respect to the conventional technology with a continuous bias and turning out to be much more effective in the densification and hardening of the material. A multi-technique approach has been used for a thorough characterization of the deposited films in order to highlight the effects of the gas precursor composition and of the ion bombardment due to the substrate bias on the chemical, structural and mechanical evolution of the material. In particular, the chemical composition and the structure were investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). Positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) was performed for the detection of nano-scale open volume defects while nano-indentation and stylus profilometry techniques were used to evaluate the film hardness and internal stress.