Chemical vapor deposition systems

Fig. 4.29 A gas-preparation assembly for a chemical-vapor-deposition system.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of thin solid films from gaseous reactants is reviewed. General process considerations such as film thickness, uniformity, and structure are discussed, along with chemical vapor deposition reactor systems. Fundamental issues related to nucleation, thermodynamics, gas-phase chemistry, and surface chemistry are reviewed. Transport phenomena in low-pressure and atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor deposition systems are described and compared with those in other chemically reacting systems. Finally, modeling approaches to the different types of chemical vapor deposition reactors are outlined and illustrated with examples. 

Figure 3.21 Chemical vapor deposition system. (Copyright 2006 University of Wisconsin. Reproduced with permission.)...

Fig. 3.6 Schematic diagram of hot-filament chemical vapor deposition system (after Guo and Chen 2007a)...

Table I. Typical Chemical Vapor Deposition Systems...

Figure 3.7 Schematic of a chemical vapor deposition system with catalyst inside a furnace exposed to reaction gases at elevated temperatures.

Lin T, et al. Compositional mapping of the argon - methane - hydrogen system for polycrystaUine to nanocrystalline diamond film growth in a hot-filament chemical vapor deposition system Appl Phys Lett 2000. 

Fig. 4 Typical layout of a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition system.

The details of the growth of the boron-doped polycrystalline diamond thin films using a high pressure microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition system (ASTeX) have been... 

A schematic diagram of the procedure for fabricating the BDD-MDA electrode is shown in Fig. 11.1. A Si(lOO) surface was masked with patterned photoresist and etched with a mixture of HF, HNO3 and H2O. The structured silicon surface was seeded with 10-nm diamond powder. BDD was deposited using a microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition system. The details of the diamond deposition have been reported elsewhere [7]. After the deposition of diamond, polyimide varnish was spin-coated on the diamond surface. The polyimide layer was... 

Polycrystalline BDD electrodes were deposited onto Si substrates using a microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition system. The detailed procedures for the preparation have been described elsewhere [7]. After the diamond was deposited, it was sputtered using a GDOES instrument at an Ar pressure of 0.51 Torr by applying an rf power of 40 W at 13.56 MHz. The values of the gas pressure and the applied power relate to the plasma per se. The surface of the diamond became mirror-like in... 

Figure 12.5 A schematic diagram of some of the major elements of a typical low-pressure chemical vapor deposition system. Note that the entire process is typically contained within a safety enclosure because many of the reactants as process gases are either flammable or toxic. A toxic gas detector scans the interior of the enclosure, especially around the gas piping, for leaks. The scrubber reacts the source materials that are left over after passing through the reactor tube to render them harmless. Typically the valves for all sources are operated electronically so that the user does not need to open the safety enclosure except to load substrates on the susceptor. The system shown here includes a single substrate on a tilted susceptor. Batch processes are similar except in the arrangement of substrates in the reactor tube. Other reactor tube designs are also used. More specific reaction examples are given in Section 12.8.

Molybdenum hexafluoride is used in the manufacture of thin films (qv) for large-scale integrated circuits (qv) commonly known as LSIC systems (3,4), in the manufacture of metallised ceramics (see MetaL-MATRIX COMPOSITES) (5), and chemical vapor deposition of molybdenum and molybdenum—tungsten alloys (see Molybdenumand molybdenum alloys) (6,7). The latter process involves the reduction of gaseous metal fluorides by hydrogen at elevated temperatures to produce metals or their alloys such as molybdenum—tungsten, molybdenum—tungsten—rhenium, or molybdenum—rhenium alloys. 

Dielectric Deposition Systems. The most common techniques used for dielectric deposition include chemical vapor deposition (CVD), sputtering, and spin-on films. In a CVD system thermal or plasma energy is used to decompose source molecules on the semiconductor surface (189). In plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD), typical source gases include silane, SiH, and nitrous oxide, N2O, for deposition of siUcon nitride. The most common CVD films used are siUcon dioxide, siUcon nitride, and siUcon oxynitrides. 

Carbon Composites. Cermet friction materials tend to be heavy, thus making the brake system less energy-efficient. Compared with cermets, carbon (or graphite) is a thermally stable material of low density and reasonably high specific heat. A combination of these properties makes carbon attractive as a brake material and several companies are manufacturing carbon fiber—reinforced carbon-matrix composites, which ate used primarily for aircraft brakes and race cats (16). Carbon composites usually consist of three types of carbon carbon in the fibrous form (see Carbon fibers), carbon resulting from the controlled pyrolysis of the resin (usually phenoHc-based), and carbon from chemical vapor deposition (CVD) filling the pores (16). 

Lackey, W., Hanigofsky, J., and Freeman, G., Experimental Whisker Growth and Thermodynamic Study of the Hafnium-Carbon System for Chemical Vapor Deposition Applications, 7] Amer. Ceram. Soc., 73(6) 1593-98 (1990)... 

Chemical vapor deposition processes are complex. Chemical thermodynamics, mass transfer, reaction kinetics and crystal growth all play important roles. Equilibrium thermodynamic analysis is the first step in understanding any CVD process. Thermodynamic calculations are useful in predicting limiting deposition rates and condensed phases in the systems which can deposit under the limiting equilibrium state. These calculations are made for CVD of titanium - - and tantalum diborides, but in dynamic CVD systems equilibrium is rarely achieved and kinetic factors often govern the deposition rate behavior. 

Many semibatch reactions involve more than one phase and are thus classified as heterogeneous. Examples are aerobic fermentations, where oxygen is supplied continuously to a liquid substrate, and chemical vapor deposition reactors, where gaseous reactants are supplied continuously to a solid substrate. Typically, the overall reaction rate wiU be limited by the rate of interphase mass transfer. Such systems are treated using the methods of Chapters 10 and 11. Occasionally, the reaction will be kinetically limited so that the transferred component saturates the reaction phase. The system can then be treated as a batch reaction, with the concentration of the transferred component being dictated by its solubility. The early stages of a batch fermentation will behave in this fashion, but will shift to a mass transfer limitation as the cell mass and thus the oxygen demand increase. 

At the end of last century, a near frictionless carbon (NFC) coating was reported, which is practically hydrogen contained DLC film grown on steel and sapphire substrates using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system [50]. By using a ball on a disk tribo-meter, a super low friction coefficient of 0.001-0.003 between the films coated on both the ball and the disk was achieved [50]. A mechanistic model was proposed that carbon atoms on the surface are partially di-hydrogenated, resulting in the chemical inertness of the surface. Consequently, adhesive interaction becomes weak and super low friction is achieved [22],... 

These processes are very rapid and allow the preparation of inorganic supports in one step. This technique allows large-scale manufacturing of supports such as titania, fumed silica, and aluminas. Sometimes the properties of the material differ from the conventional preparation routes and make this approach unique. Multicomponent systems can be also prepared, either by multimetallic solutions or by using a two-nozzle system fed with monometallic solutions [22]. The as-prepared powder can be directly deposited onto substrates, and the process is termed combustion chemical vapor deposition [23]. 

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