Plasma-assisted deposition of thin silicon oxide films in a remote PECVD reactor and characterization of films produced under different conditions

Abstract

Silicon oxide thin films have been deposited in plasma-assisted CVD process. With tetraethylorthosilcate (TEOS, Si(OC 2H 5) 4) as precursor and an oxygen RF-plasma, thin films of 50–100 nm were deposited on silicon wafers. The deposition process was controlled in situ by monitoring the soft X-ray reflectivity of the growing layer. The influence of additional gases such as nitrogen and changes of the plasma conditions on the resulting films have been studied by analyzing the films with grazing incidence X-ray reflectometry, infrared spectroscopy, spectral ellipsometry and capacitance–voltage and current–voltage measurements were performed at different temperatures.