Tetrakis(trimethylsilyloxy)silane for nanostructured SiO2-like films deposited by PECVD at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oPlasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) from tetrakis(trimethylsilyloxy)silane (TTMS) has been studied at atmospheric pressure. TTMS has been chosen because of its unique 3D structure with potential to form nano-structured organosilicon polymers. Despite the widespread surveying of various silicon-organic molecules for PECVD, the use of TTMS in AP-PECVD has not been investigated deeper yet. PECVDs have been performed with two different plasma jets. While they are alike regarding the geometry and injection of TTMS, they differ in input power and excitation frequency. The radiofrequency plasma jet operates at lower power densities as compared to the microwave plasma jet. Despite this all the deposited films exhibit similar chemical properties resembling that of silicon dioxide (Si:O = 1:2) with carbon content below 5%. The films demonstrate a broad variety of morphologies from compact smooth films to nano-dendritic 3D structures depending on the particular process.

Atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma jet technology: general features, specificities and applications in surface processing of materials

“…4e and f) or the electrode-less microwave plasma jets (Fig. 6a) which have, however, to integrate the resonant cavity to generate the plasma [10,30].…”

“…Microwaves are, in fact, often utilized to generate non-equilibrium plasma columns as well as moving and extended plasmas proposed for instance for the treatment of the inner surfaces of tubular structures of heat sensitive materials [9,82,83]. To date, few studies have been published on atmospheric pressure microwave-driven non-equilibrium plasma jets and, in particular, on their utilization in surface processing [30,84,85].…”

“…A MW electrode-less jet, using a surfatron as excitation source, was presented by Schäfer et al [30] (Fig. 6a) for the deposition of SiO 2 -like coatings.…”

“…In the last years, the deposition of SiO x thin film has been widely investigated by using many different plasma jet devices and organosilicon precursors (e.g., hexamethyldisiloxane, tetraethoxysilane, octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, and tetrakis(trimethylsilyloxy)silane) [30,95,164,165,172,181,208,209]. Growth rates as high as 60 μm•min -1 have been reported for smooth SiO x coatings by using the low temperature arc jet of Fig.…”

Atmospheric Pressure Microwave Plasma Jet for Organic Thin Film Deposition

“…Furthermore, such a relatively high frequency can also minimize the plasma instability and its transition to arc mode during film deposition, which can bypass the degradation of molecules and chemical bonds during the deposition stage. Nevertheless, despite all the above-listed advantages of MW discharge sources, only a few works have been conducted which have focused on the performance of MW plasma jets in thin film deposition under different operational conditions [8,23,24]. Additional advantages of MW plasma application for thin film deposition are its simplicity and its generally cheap scalability up to a couple of meters.…”