Investigation of tungsten incorporated amorphous carbon film

Metal incorporated carbon films (Me-C:H) were deposited using a new techniq ue with two W screen grids incorporated inside an electron cyclotron resona nce chemical vapour deposition (ECR-CVD) chamber. This technique is versati le when applied to the deposition of Me-C:H films as the degree of plasma i onisation, the sputtering rate of the metal grids and the energy of the imp inging ions can be independently controlled. In this work, the proposed tec hnique is demonstrated through W-C:H deposition at different flow ratios of CH4 to Ar. A DC bias of - 330V was applied to the upper and lower grids wi th either the substrate floating or under direct DC bias. The films were ch aracterised in terms of their conductivity, atomic concentration (RBS), ato mic configuration(XPS and XRD), hardness and optical absorption. The resist ivities and the optical gaps of the films were noted to decrease drasticall y upon incorporation of several atomic percentage of W. WC formation is onl y observed for films deposited with the substrate under direct DC bias. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.