RF plasma assisted process for the deposition of silicon carbide thin films

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. Recently, interest has increased about silicon carbide (SiC) thin films deposited onto various substrates because of the possibility of widespread applications such as high power electronic devices and high temperature sensors. The chemical vapor deposition of the SiC thin films on the heated silicon (Si) substrate is a widely used technique in the microelectronics areas. However, in these processes, the Si substrate must be raised to near 1400/spl deg/C to form a crystalline SiC film. Such a high temperature, being close to the melting temperature of Si, makes critical problems in the mass production of the devices. It is possible to decrease the temperature by using radio frequency (RF) plasma activation during the film deposition process. The SiC thin films were deposited on silicon substrate by the thermal decomposition of CH/sub 3/SiCl/sub 3/ (methyl-thrichloro-silane) molecules and by the RF plasma chemical method, operating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz. The deposited SiC thin films were analyzed with varying the process conditions of the RF plasma and the substrate temperature. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy have been mainly used for the material analysis.