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Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD)
Plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) is used to deposit dielectric thin films on substrate materials. The films may be an integral part of a semiconductor device or may be deposited as a masking layer to protect important regions from damage during later fabrication steps. PECVD films are used in virtually all semiconductor devices, including diode lasers, quantum electronics and MEMs structures.
A PECVD system mixes precursor gasses in a vacuum chamber and excites the resulting mixture with a radio frequency (RF) generator to create a plasma of ionized gasses. An electrical potential difference between the plasma and the substrate accelerates ions towards the substrate, where they react to form the final film. Tuning the vacuum chamber pressure, RF power, temperature and gas flows allows the user to adjust a film’s physical properties, including refractive index, growth rate and film density.
Two PECVD systems are located in the Nanofabrication cleanroom facility at IMS: an Oxford PlasmaLab System 100 and a PlasmaTherm PlasmaLab system 70.
The Oxford PlasmaLab System 100 PECVD is primarily used to deposit silicon nitride and amorphous silicon films for use in semiconductor device applications, although silicon dioxide and silicon oxynitride films are also grown as required. Silane (SiH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) are used as growth precursor gasses. The system is equipped with a dual-frequency RF generator that operates at 14.56 MHz and ~1 kHz, which permits control of the residual stress of the resulting layer (-1 GPa – +300 MPa for Si3N4). The machine is equipped with a load lock designed to handle 150 mm (6”) silicon wafers, but more usually smaller samples are transported into the main deposition chamber on a carrier wafer.
The PlasmaTherm PlasmaLab System 70 is primarily used to deposit silicon dioxide films, with silane (SiH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) as growth precursor gasses. Limited adjustment of film stresses is available by tuning growth parameters; stress of between 0-300 MPa is common for silicon dioxide. The system is usually used to deposit films up to a few microns in thickness on samples that can be as large as 150 mm (6”) wafers.
