Controlling Fluorine Concentration and Thermal Annealing Effect on Liquid‐Phase Deposited SiO2 − x F x Films

Abstract

Silicon oxide with fluorine naturally incorporated can be prepared by the liquid‐phase deposition (LPD) method at 15°C. The fluorine is uniformly distributed in the bulk of the LPD oxide. The fluorine incorporation as well as the qualitative properties can be accurately controlled by varying the amount of added. A high temperature process has considerable effect on the low temperature fluorinated oxide. FTIR and XPS spectra show that Si—F and bonds can restructure with densification at higher thermal annealing temperature, and that restructuring is a function of temperature. Film densification with increasing temperature is also discussed in terms of Si—O—Si bond angle and Si‐Si bond length.