Low‐temperature deposition of nanocrystalline diamond films on silicon nitride substrates using distributed antenna array PECVD system

Abstract

The growth of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films on Si 3 N 4 ceramic substrates at low surface temperature using a distributed antenna array plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process is investigated. The advantage of the considered deposition process for keeping a low growth temperature is demonstrated through microwave electric field simulation and comparisons with microwave cavity systems. The suitable design of the low-pressure distributed antenna array reactor thus prevents the ceramic substrate from overheating and consequently from film graphitization. Therefore, for the first time NCD/Si 3 N 4 tribosystems are achieved for deposition temperature in the range 250-400 8C. The nature of the ex situ pretreatment carried out on Si 3 N 4 ceramics in order to favor diamond nucleation, as well as temperature variation in the considered range, do not significantly influence the morphology, topography, composition, and microstructure of the NCD films, the characteristics of which remain very close to those of films deposited on Si substrates under the same conditions. Only the growth rate decreases by a factor of two, down to 15-17 nm h À1 , when the deposition temperature diminishes from 400 to 250 8C. This behavior is attributed to an activation energy almost substrate-independent estimated in the range 3.24-3.57 kcal mol À1 for the considered low-temperature and low-pressure NCD deposition process using a H 2 /CH 4 / CO 2 gas mixture.

Study of Low Temperature Deposition of Nanocrystalline Diamond Films on ZnO/LiNbO3 Layered Structures Suitable for Waveguiding Layer Acoustic Wave Devices

“…In order to easily estimate the NCD film thickness, the growth was systematically and simultaneously performed both on a Si substrate, as reference, and on the considered substrates (ZnO/Si, ZnO/LiNbO 3 , or ZnO/IDTs/LiNbO 3 ). Indeed, the growth rate only depends on experimental parameters, regardless of the substrate nature if the deposition temperature is maintained constant, so that the resulting film thickness can be considered similar whatever the substrate. NCD film deposited thickness (Th NCD ) was then estimated on Si substrate by using a UV–visible reflectometer and by measuring the weight gain after deposition according to Equation .…”

Effect of the admixture of N2to low pressure, low temperature H2-CH4-CO2microwave plasmas used for large area deposition of nanocrystalline diamond films

“…Among these new technologies, a distributed antenna array (DAA) microwave system composed of a 4 × 4 source planar matrix was designed in order to achieve NCD films at a substrate temperature as low as 100 • C on fourinch wafers. Its efficiency for NCD growth on conventional (silicon) and unconventional substrates such as silicon nitride, AlN/ZnO/IDTs/LiNbO 3 multilayered structures and titanium implants has been demonstrated [4][5][6]. However, such a low temperature process is associated with a very low growth rate of only a few tens of nanometer per hour (nm h −1 ) at the best [7].…”

Hybrid Systems for the Generation of Nonclassical Mechanical States via Quadratic Interactions

“…An NV center injected in a diamond film [61] is placed on top of a resonator of nanometer-scale thickness that oscillates along the z direction; the extension of the diamond film should be much smaller than that of the oscillator to minimize any possible impact on its properties. Diamond films can be compatible, for instance, with silicon nitride substrates [62][63][64]. The resonator is positioned in the gap between two cylindrical nanomagnets with saturated magnetization along the z axis.…”