Amorphous silicon carbide films by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of amorphous silicon carbide ( alpha -SiC) is studied. PECVD allows deposition of alpha -SiC on a variety of substrates at low temperatures. The index of refraction of the deposited alpha -SiC films was in the range of 1.9 to 2.4 depending on the SiH/sub 4//CH/sub 4/ gas flow ratio and RF power. The deposition rate of alpha -SiC films, averaging 45 AA/min, increased with increasing RF power and pressure, and with decreasing substrate temperature. The quality of the deposited films could be improved by high-temperature annealing. The HF etch rate of the PECVD SiC films in HF is small enough (i.e., 5 AA/s on the average) to enable utilization of these films in surface micromachining processes which use silicon dioxide as a sacrificial layer. >