Plasma-enhanced growth, composition, and refractive index of silicon oxy-nitride films

Secondary ion mass spectrometry and refractive index measurements have been carried out on silicon oxy‐nitride produced by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Nitrous oxide and ammonia were added to a constant flow of 2% silane in nitrogen, to produce oxy‐nitride films with atomic nitrogen concentrations between 2 and 10 at. %. A simple atomic valence model is found to describe both the measured atomic concentrations and published material compositions for silicon oxy‐nitride produced by PECVD. A relation between the Si–N bond concentration and the refractive index is found. This relation suggest that the refractive index of oxy‐nitride with a low nitrogen concentration is determined by the material density. It is suggested that the relative oxygen concentration in the gas flow is the major deposition characterization parameter, and that water vapor is the predominant reaction by‐product. A model, that combine the chemical net reaction and the stoichiometric rules, is found to agree with me...

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