AVS 53rd International Symposium
    MEMS and NEMS Tuesday Sessions
       Session MN-TuM

Paper MN-TuM3
Compensation of Strain Gradient by Varying Dopant Profile during the Growth of Polycrystalline Silicon Carbide Films

Tuesday, November 14, 2006, 8:40 am, Room 2007

Session: Material Aspects of MEMS and NEMS
Presenter: J. Zhang, University of California, Berkeley
Authors: J. Zhang, University of California, Berkeley
R. Howe, Stanford University
R. Maboudian, University of California, Berkeley
Correspondent: Click to Email
Polycrystalline 3C-SiC (poly-SiC) films are deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition on Si(100) substrates using 1,3-disilabutane and are in-situ doped by NH@sub 3@. The effects of dopant concentration on residual strain and strain gradient of the films are investigated using microstrain gauges and cantilever beam arrays. With the increase in doping level, the tensile strain increases from 0.10% to 0.21%. The strain gradient of all films is negative with values ranging from -2 x 10@super -4@ to -5 x 10@super -4@ µm@super-1@. To compensate for the strain gradient, a bi-layer deposition scheme consisting of films with different residual strain due to varying doping is developed. With this approach, a positive strain gradient of 5 x 10@super -5@ µm@super -1@ is achieved. Discussion and further optimization of this method will also be presented.