Microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition of tetramethylsilane: correlations between optical emission spectroscopy and film characteristics

In a tetramethylsilane (TMS) (Si(CH3)(4))/argon microwave discharge used fo r deposition, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) measurements are carried out along the reactor axis between the precursor inlet and the deposition s urface which is independently heated. The results are examined in connectio n with the deposit features. The changes in the relative amounts of the det ected species such as H, Si+, H-2, CH, C-2, SiH and SiC2 highlight competit ions between the decomposition of the precursor and recombinations in the p lasma flow. This leads to the occurrence of reactive bond carriers Si-C, C- C, C-H when close to the substrate. It appears that hydrogen is mainly carr ied to the growing surface through species bonded to carbon. Some film char acteristics revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier tra nsform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) characterizations and hardness measurem ents are discussed and can be well correlated to trends detected in the gas phase. ne interest of such films whose features (hardness and low dry fric tion coefficient) can be adjusted is underlined. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.