Effects of process parameters on the structure of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films processed by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

The paper presents the investigation of the effect of the process parameters on the structure of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films deposited on Si(100) substrate by electron cyclotron resonance microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition method (ECR-PCVD). The investigation is based on an orthogonal experimental design and analysis method. Both the carbon sp(3)/sp(2) bonding ratio and hydrogen content are evaluated from the visible Raman spectra deconvolution. The statistical results indicate that the sp(3)/sp(2) bonding ratio is mainly affected by microwave power, and it decreases as the microwave power increases. The hydrogen content in a-C:H films is mainly affected by the substrate bias voltage, and it decreases with increasing the bias voltage. The effect of other parameters on the structure of a-C:H films is relatively not significant, but is also discussed in the paper. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.