Deposition of silicon alloys in an integrated distributed electron cyclotron resonance reactor:: Oxide, nitride, oxinitrides, and multilayer structures

The films of SiOxNy were deposited in an integrated distributed electron cyclotron resonance reactor. Due to planar geometry, such deposition processes can be scaled-up for processing of large areas. Deposition kinetics and material properties were studied in order to find the common principles for obtaining faster growth rates and more uniform deposition of high quality films. Films were grown without bias at room temperature from mixtures of SiH4, O-2, and N-2 at high deposition rates (more than 4.5 nm/s for silica). Optical properties of the films were analyzed using ultraviolet (UV)-visible and infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry. The influence of gas flows, temperature, pressure, microwave power, and rf bias was investigated. A multilayer optical filter was grown on a polycarbonate substrate using a UV-visible ellipsometer to control the deposition process. The success of this test confirms the accuracy of the experimental results and shows high promise for the technology. (C) 2002 American Vacuum Society.