Method of Probe Measurement in N2/SiH4 Microwave Plasma

Abstract

It has been clarified that probe current decreases linearly with increasing deposition time of a SiN film on a probe. From this result, a probe current-voltage characteristic without any deposition of the SiN film can be extrapolated from some probe current-voltage characteristics of different deposition times of the SiN film. It has been clarified that the 450 Å SiN film deposited on the probe can be removed by ion bombardment with -200 V applied to the probe for 220 s in the pure N2 plasma (T e\\fallingdotseq13,000 K, n e\\fallingdotseq5.0×109 cm-3). By repeating these two methods, it is clear that repeated ordinary probe measurement is possible in the N2/SiH4 plasma. By using this method, the spatial distributions of electron temperature and electron density are measured in the N2/SiH4 plasma in the deposition chamber of a double-tubed coaxial-line type microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) system.