Properties of SiCN coatings for high temperature applications — Comparison of RF-, DC- and HPPMS-sputtering

Hoche, Holger; Pusch, Casper; Riedel, Ralf; Fasel, Claudia; Klein, Andreas

doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2010.03.039

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…5 The protective properties of SiC x N y materials appear as an intermediate matrix to meet the demands in hard coating technology and concurrently, the tunability of SiC x N y 's electrical and optical properties raises its interest in the field of Photonics. SiC x N y structures have appeal to researchers for wear-resistant 6 and corrosion-resistant coatings, 7 and recently, for silicon-based anode materials in lithium ion batteries. 8 In addition, SiC x N y structures are used for gate dielectrics in thin film transistors 9 and diffusion barriers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Deposition Conditions on the Characteristics of Luminescent Silicon Carbonitride Thin Films

Khatami

Bosco

Wójcik

et al. 2018

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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The influence of the substrate temperature and argon gas flow on the compositional, structural, optical, and light emission properties of amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbonitride (a-SiC x N y :H) thin films were studied. Thin films were fabricated using electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (ECR PECVD) at a range of substrate temperatures from 120 to 170 • C (corresponding to deposition temperatures of 300 to 450 • C) in a mixture of SiH 4 , N 2 , and CH 4 precursors. Variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer (VASE), elastic recoil detection (ERD), and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) verified optical bandgap widening, layer densification, and an increase of the refractive index at higher substrate temperatures. The microstructure of a-SiC x N y :H z thin films was determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The substrate temperature strongly affected the binding state of all atoms, and in particular, carbon atoms attached to silicon and nitrogen, as well as hydrogen-terminated bonds. We correlated the films' microstructural changes to a higher species' mobility arriving on the growin layer at higher temperatures. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements showed that the total intensity of visible light emission increased. A systematic blueshift of the centroid of the wide PL peak was observed following the increase of optical gap. 2 This is a consequence of their unique properties inherited from the combined properties of binary substructures, silicon carbide (SiC), silicon nitride (SiN), and carbonitride (CN). On the one hand, the durability and hardness of SiN structures cannot compete with those of carbon-based hard counterparts such as diamond-like carbon (DLC), CN, and SiC materials.3 On the other hand, carbon-based films do not offer the required properties for current optical designs, 4 while SiN thin films have been considered as the basis for several optoelectronic devices. 5 The protective properties of SiC x N y materials appear as an intermediate matrix to meet the demands in hard coating technology and concurrently, the tunability of SiC x N y 's electrical and optical properties raises its interest in the field of Photonics. SiC x N y structures have appeal to researchers for wear-resistant 6 and corrosion-resistant coatings, 7 and recently, for silicon-based anode materials in lithium ion batteries. 8 In addition, SiC x N y structures are used for gate dielectrics in thin film transistors 9 and diffusion barriers.10 They appear to broaden the optical parameter space required for the application of ultraviolet (UV) detectors 11,12 and the passivation layer in the third generation "all-silicon" tandem solar cells. 13,14 To this end, Chen et al. reported a direct bandgap of 3.8 eV for c-Si 2 N 4 C 15 and Azam et al. 16 investigated the tunability of the bandgap depending on the dominant phase present in the SiC x N y layer. We previously showed that the visible photoluminescence (PL) emission from ...

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confidence: 99%

Influence of Deposition Conditions on the Characteristics of Luminescent Silicon Carbonitride Thin Films

Khatami

Bosco

Wójcik

et al. 2018

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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“…Similarly, the published mechanical properties of SiC x N y films are exclusively obtained under room temperature conditions either for as-deposited or annealed films [30,37,38]. While the high temperature hardness and elastic modulus data for SiC x N y films are highly sought for improving their performance these data are not yet available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical properties of amorphous silicon carbonitride thin films at elevated temperatures

2014

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The mechanical properties of amorphous silicon carbonitride (a-SiC x N y ) films with various nitrogen content (y = 0-40 at.%) were investigated in situ at elevated temperatures up to 650°C in inert atmosphere. A SiC film was measured also at 700°C in air. The hardness and elastic modulus were evaluated using instrumented nanoindentation with thermally stable cubic boron nitride Berkovich indenter. Both the sample and the indenter were separately heated during the experiments to temperatures of 300, 500, and 650°C. Short duration high temperature creep tests (1200 s) of the films were also carried out. The results revealed that the room temperature hardness and elastic modulus deteriorate with the increase of the nitrogen content. Furthermore, the hardness of both the a-SiC and the a-SiCN films with lower nitrogen content at 300°C drops to approx. 77 % of the corresponding room temperature values, while it reduces to 69 % for the a-SiCN film with 40 at.% of nitrogen. Further increase of temperature is accompanied with minor reduction in hardness except for the a-SiCN film with highest nitrogen content, where the hardness decreases at a much faster rate. Upon heating up to 500°C, the elastic modulus of the a-SiCN film decreases, while it increases at 650°C due to the pronounced effect of short-range ordering. The steady-state creep rate increases at elevated temperatures and the a-SiC exhibits slower creep rates compared to the a-SiCN films. The value of the universal constant x = 7 relating the W p /W t and H/E * was established and its applicability was demonstrated. Analysis of the experimental indentation data suggests a theoretical limit of hardness to elastic modulus ratio of 0.143.

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“…[13,53] The synthesis methods most commonly employed are pyrolysis of pre-ceramic polymers, [54,55], CVD, [51,56] and PVD. [57,58] Various target-reactive gas combinations are possible for magnetron sputtering of SiC x N y . Carbon can be introduced either by sputtering a SiC target, [50] by reactive co-sputtering of Si and C targets, [5,59] or by using a hydrocarbon gas such as methane [60] or acetylene [61].…”

Section: Silicon Carbonitridementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Low film nitrogen contents favor the formation of Si−C bonds. [58] Films sputtered with a hydrocarbon gas as a carbon source often have a pronounced C−C component due to presence of amorphous hydrocarbon in the films. [59,65] Similarly, co-sputtered films show a large C−C contribution.…”

Section: Silicon Carbonitridementioning

confidence: 99%

“…[135][136][137] They have been used as the carbon source for SiCN films, where N 2 was used to supply nitrogen, resulting in a complex sputtering process with more than one reactive gas. [58,60] Several electron impact reactions are possible for the C 2 H 2 molecule. Electron impact ionization has an energy threshold of 11.4 eV [105], which is significantly lower than that of Ar (15.8 eV) or N 2 (15.6 eV).…”

Section: Acetylenementioning

confidence: 99%

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Silicon Nitride Based Coatings Grown by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Hänninen¹

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Silicon nitride and silicon nitride-based ceramics have several favorable material properties, such as high hardness and good wear resistance, which makes them important materials for the coating industry. This thesis focuses the synthesis of silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, and silicon carbonitride thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering. The films were characterized based on their chemical composition, chemical bonding structure, and mechanical properties to link the growth conditions to the film properties. Silicon nitride films were synthesized by reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) from a Si target in Ar/N 2 atmospheres, whereas silicon oxynitride films were grown by using nitrous oxide as the reactive gas. Silicon carbonitride was synthesized by two different methods. The first method was using acetylene (C 2 H 2 ) in addition to N 2 in a Si HiPIMS process and the other was co-sputtering of Si and C, using HiPIMS for Si and direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) for graphite targets in an Ar/N 2 atmosphere. Langmuir probe measurements were carried out for the silicon nitride and silicon oxynitride processes and positive ion mass spectrometry for the silicon nitride processes to gain further understanding on the plasma conditions during film growth. The target current and voltage waveforms of the reactive HiPIMS processes were evaluated.The main deposition parameter affecting the nitrogen concentration of silicon nitride films was found to be the nitrogen content in the plasma. Films with nitrogen contents of 50 at.% were deposited at N 2 /Ar flow ratios of 0.3 and above. These films showed Si−N as the dominating component in Si 2p X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) core level spectra and Si−Si bonds were absent. The substrate temperature and target power were found to affect the nitrogen content to a lower extent. The residual stress and hardness of the films were found to increase with the film nitrogen content. Another factors influencing the coating stress were the process pressure, negative substrate bias, substrate temperature, and HiPIMS pulse energy. Silicon nitride coatings with good adhesion and low levels of compressive residual stress were grown by using a pressure of 600 mPa, a substrate temperature iii iv below 200 ℃, pulse energies below 2.5 Ws, and negative bias voltages up to 100 V.The elemental composition of silicon oxynitride films was shown to depend on the target power settings as well as on the nitrous oxide flow rate. Silicon oxide-like films were synthesized under poisoned target surface conditions, whereas films deposited in the transition regime between poisoned and metallic conditions showed higher nitrogen concentrations. The nitrogen content of the films deposited in the transition region was controlled by the applied gas flow rate. The applied target power did not affect the nitrogen concentration in the transition regime, while the oxygen content increased at decreasing target powers. The chemical composition of the films was show...

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Properties of SiCN coatings for high temperature applications — Comparison of RF-, DC- and HPPMS-sputtering

Cited by 31 publications

References 35 publications

Influence of Deposition Conditions on the Characteristics of Luminescent Silicon Carbonitride Thin Films

Influence of Deposition Conditions on the Characteristics of Luminescent Silicon Carbonitride Thin Films

Mechanical properties of amorphous silicon carbonitride thin films at elevated temperatures

Silicon Nitride Based Coatings Grown by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

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