Low-pressure chemical vapor deposition silicon-oxynitride films for integrated optics.

The low-pressure chemical vapor deposition of silicon-oxynitride films for applications as integrated optical waveguides on silicon substrates, using gas compositions of SiH(2)Cl(2)-NH(3)-N(2)O, SiH(2)Cl(2)-NH(3)-O(2) and SiH(4)-NH(3)-O(2), has been investigated with respect to deposition rate, uniformity, reproducibility in the 1.46-2 index range, and propagating loss. The best results were obtained with the SiH(2)Cl(2)-NH(2)-O(2) reaction, which provides a deposition rate up to 30 nm/min and a thickness variation across a wafer below 3% at propagation losses below 0.5 dB/cm.