AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS-TuP

Paper PS-TuP1
Aluminum Nitride formed by Expanding Thermal Arc Plasma Chemical Vapor Depositon

Tuesday, November 1, 2005, 4:00 pm, Room Exhibit Hall C&D

Session: Plasma Science and Technology Poster Session
Presenter: G.T. Dalakos, GE Global Research Center
Authors: G.T. Dalakos, GE Global Research Center
H. Marek, GE Global Research Center
Correspondent: Click to Email
This work involves very-high deposition rates of aluminum nitride thin films using a novel, high-density expanding plasma source to dissociate suitable gas-phase precursors. The plasma source is produced from a DC thermal arc discharge that expands into the vacuum deposition chamber, breaking up gas feedstock and forming film precursors. Due to the large, charged species concentration present in the arc source, use of this plasma source allows us to achieve unusually large deposition rates of a few microns/min. In this regard, we discuss the differences between our approach and conventional deposition approaches. We additionally discuss how experimental processing parameters of the expanding thermal arc source affects measured film properties such as composition, morphology and crystalline nature of our deposited films.