Plasma enhanced vapor deposition PECVD

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],... 

The amorphous silicon tandem solar cells consisted of three n-i-p a-Si H cells grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [126]. The a-Si H cell area was 0.5 cm2. 

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, 5 803-813,13 386 16 173, 531 17 209 22 129 23 7, 59 24 743-744 25 373. See also CVD entries Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) Vapor deposition catalyzed, 26 806 ceramics and, 5 663 common precursors and corresponding thin films grown, 5 805t in compound semiconductor processing, 22 188, 189... 

In the Development stage, detailed product design is carried out. This is the key step for the chemical vapor deposition of thin silicon films. As described in the next section, to obtain uniform thin films rapidly, it is desirable to optimize the design of the plasma-enhanced, chemical-vapor-deposition (PECVD) reactor. 

For epitaxial silicon wafers, product design focuses on optimizing the geometry of the plasma-enhanced, chemical-vapor-deposition (PECVD) reactor. To increase productivity, and maintain acceptable thickness uniformity, on the order of 5%, a simple optimization strategy locates a design that completes the deposition in 62 s. Then, for a standard manufacturing process, the economics are driven by the wafer costs, which are provided by a vendor at 206/wafer. At a sales price of 260/epitaxial wafer, the investor s rate of return is 18.3% and the return on investment is 25.3%. 

The steam reformer is a serpentine channel with a channel width of 1000 fim and depth of 230 fim (Figure 15). Four reformers were fabricated per single 100 mm silicon wafer polished on both sides. In the procedure employed to fabricate the reactors, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) was used to deposit silicon nitride, an etch stop for a silicon wet etch later in the process, on both sides of the wafer. Next, the desired pattern was transferred to the back of the wafer using photolithography, and the silicon nitride was plasma etched. Potassium hydroxide was then used to etch the exposed silicon to the desired depth. Copper, approximately 33 nm thick, which was used as the reforming catalyst, was then deposited by sputter deposition. The reactor inlet was made by etching a 1 mm hole into the end... 

Figure 15 records an example of this relationship between incoming thickness variation and post-CMP thickness variation. The incoming thickness variation is due to the fact that the TEOS film was deposited in two different plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) chambers, which are not calibrated identically [13]. As can be seen in Fig. 15, the pre-CMP wafer-to-wafer thickness variation pattern has been perfectly preserved after CMP. 

In chemical vapor deposition (CVD) complex shaped surfaces can be coated with homogeneous layers, especially when carried out at low pressure (LPCVD, low pressure chemical vapor deposition) (review Ref. [410]). A gas reacts with the heated substrate surface to give a solid coating and gaseous by-products which have to be removed continously. Layer thicknesses created by chemical vapor deposition are usually in the order 5-10 pm.. In cases where it is necessary to keep the temperature low, a plasma can stimulate the surface reaction in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). 

The material deposition that occurs in the low-pressure electrical discharge has been discussed under various terminologies such as plasma polymerization (PP), plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD), plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD), and so forth [1]. However, none of these terminologies seems to represent the phenomenon adequately. The plasma aspect in the low-pressure discharge is remote, although it plays a key role in creating the environment from which material deposition occurs to the extent that no chemical reaction occurs without the plasma. In this sense, PECVD and PACVD could be out of the context in many cases in which nothing happens without plasma. In such cases, PP or PCVD would describe the phenomenon better. If the substrate was not heated substantially above the ambient temperature, the use of PECVD or PACVD should be avoided. 

In order to find the domain of LCVD, it is necessary to compare various vacuum deposition processes chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD), plasma-assisted CVD (PACVD), plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD), and plasma polymerization (PP). All of these terms refer to methods or processes that yield the deposition of materials in a thin-film form in vacuum. There is no clear definition for these terms that can be used to separate processes that are represented by these terminologies. All involve the starting material in vapor phase and the product in the solid state. 

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