REMOTE PLASMA-ENHANCED CVD OF SILICON-NITRIDE FILMS - EFFECTS OF DILUTING NITROGEN WITH ARGON - PART II - EFFECT OF NITROGEN PLASMA PARAMETERS ON LAYER CHARACTERISTICS

In Part I we reported the results of an emission spectroscopic study o f the plasma obtained in an SiH4-N-2-Ar mixture, It was shown that arg on in metastable electronic excited states provides a high concentrati on of atomic nitrogen, In this part we report the results of a study o f the influence of argon dilution on the growth rate, composition and properties of silicon nitride films, The exact influence of nitrogen d ilution with argon depends on the process parameters and on the method of coupling of the RF power, but it is found in general that a high c oncentration of atomic nitrogen leads to changes in the relative amoun ts of Si-H-j and N-H-i bonds and in the Si/N ratio of deposited films, In particular, it is shown that hydrogen incorporation can be reduced and improved stoichiometry can be obtained, (C) 1998 John Wiley & Son s, Ltd.