Low-Temperature Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of SiO2 Using Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

In this work, we report the successful growth of high-quality SiO 2 films by low-temperature plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition using an oxidant which is compatible with moisture/oxygen sensitive materials. The SiO 2 films were grown at 90 °C using CO 2 and Bis(tertiary-butylamino)silane as process precursors. Growth, chemical composition, density, optical properties, and residual stress of SiO 2 films were investigated. SiO 2 films having a saturated growth-per-cycle of ~ 1.15 Å/cycle showed a density of ~ 2.1 g/cm 3 , a refractive index of ~ 1.46 at a wavelength of 632 nm, and a low tensile residual stress of ~ 30 MPa. Furthermore, the films showed low impurity levels with bulk concentrations of ~ 2.4 and ~ 0.17 at. % for hydrogen and nitrogen, respectively, whereas the carbon content was found to be below the measurement limit of time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis. These results demonstrate that CO 2 is a promising oxidizing precursor for moisture/oxygen sensitive materials related plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition processes.

Effect of an electric field during the deposition of silicon dioxide thin films by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition: an experimental and computational study

“…This value is close to that of the films deposited at 200°C as observed in the literature. 50,66,89 On applying an average-bias voltage, the residual stress increased and remained roughly constant around −250 MPa.…”

Al2O3 Thin Films Prepared by a Combined Thermal‐Plasma Atomic Layer Deposition Process at Low Temperature for Encapsulation Applications

“…Plasma‐enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) is popular as a successful method for the growth of high‐quality thin films at low temperature. For instance, many oxides, such as Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , TiO 2 , HfO 2 , and ZrO 2 , can be prepared by PEALD using O 2 , CO 2 , and N 2 O gases or H 2 O vapor …”

Shear Bond Strength to Enamel, Mechanical Properties and Cellular Studies of Fiber-Reinforced Composites Modified by Depositing SiO2 Nanofilms on Quartz Fibers via Atomic Layer Deposition

“…Regarding group C–F fibers, the decrease in mechanical properties after aging was related to the internal stresses accumulated in the SiO 2 nanofilms, in addition to the hydrolysis of the silane coupling agent. 48 , 49 Moisture can react with the strained Si-O bonds in the film to reset it to the minimum bond energy, 30 thereby decreasing the bonding between the film layers as well as the interfacial bond strength between the fiber and resin.…”