CVD Reactions

In most cases, CVD reactions are activated thermally, but in some cases, notably in exothermic chemical transport reactions, the substrate temperature is held below that of the feed material to obtain deposition. Other means of activation are available (7), eg, deposition at lower substrate temperatures is obtained by electric-discharge plasma activation. In some cases, unique materials are produced by plasma-assisted CVD (PACVD), such as amorphous siHcon from silane where 10—35 mol % hydrogen remains bonded in the soHd deposit. Except for the problem of large amounts of energy consumption in its formation, this material is of interest for thin-film solar cells. Passivating films of Si02 or Si02 Si N deposited by PACVD are of interest in the semiconductor industry (see Semiconductors). 

CVD reactions are most often produced at ambient pressure in a freely flowing system. The gas flow, mixing, and stratification in the reactor chamber can be important to the deposition process. CVD can also be performed at low pressures (LPCVD) and in ultrahigh vacuum (UHVCVD) where the gas flow is molecular. The gas flow in a CVD reactor is very sensitive to reactor design, fixturing, substrate geometry, and the number of substrates in the reactor, ie, reactor loading. Flow uniformity is a particulady important deposition parameter in VPE and MOCVD. 

A CVD reaction is governed by thermodynamics, that is the driving force which indicates the direction the reaction is going to proceed (if at all), and hykinetics, which defines the transport process and determines the rate-control mechanism, in other words, how fast it is going. 

Zj = stoichiometric coefficient of species i in the CVD reaction (negative for reactants, positive for products)... 

The changes in free energy of formation of Reaction (1) are shown in Fig. 2.1 as a function of temperature. " The values of AG were calculated using Eq. (1) above for each temperature. The Gibbs free-energy values of the reactants and products were obtained from the JANAF Tables.1 Other sources of thermodynamic data are listed inRef 6. These sources are generally accurate and satisfactory forthe thermodynamic calculations of most CVD reactions they are often revised and expanded. 

In many cases, a more complete understanding of CVD reactions and a better prediction of the results are needed and a more thorough thermodynamic and kinetic investigation is necessary. This is accomplished by the calculation of the thermodynamic equilibrium of a CVD system, which will provide useful information on the characteristics and behavior of the reaction, including the optimum range of deposition conditions. 

All of this is valuable information, which can be of great help. Yet, it must be treated with caution since, in spite of all the progress in thermodynamic analysis, the complexity of many CVD reactions, is such that predictions based on thermodynamic calculations, are still subj ect to uncertainty. As stated above, these calculations are based on chemical equilibrium which is rarely attained in CVD reactions. 

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