Plasma Deposited Silicon Nitride Film Chemistry

1989 ◽  
Vol 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin N. Chiang ◽  
Dennis W. Hess

AbstractThe structure and composition of plasma deposited (PD) silicon nitride thin films formed using NH3/SiH4, N2/SiH4, and N2/SiH4/H2, discharges are compared. The effect of introducing a DC grounded stainless steel mesh between the parallel electrodes is also discussed. Chemical structure and composition of these films are measured using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Significant changes in film composition are observed with changes in gas composition and with utilization of the screen. When the screen is invoked, variations in film composition are more pronounced for PD silicon nitride films formed using N2 as the nitrogen source. An increase in the N:Si ratio occurs for all films deposited using the screen. This compositional change is reflected in increased N-H and decreased Si-H bonding. Similar changes are also observed in films deposited from a N2/SiH4/H2 discharge compared to films formed using a N2/SiH4 discharge.

1992 ◽  
Vol 284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi-Hsien Lin ◽  
J. B. Wachtman ◽  
G. H. Sigel ◽  
R. L. Pfeffer ◽  
T. P. Monahan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTABSTRACT: Silicon nitride films (a-SixN1−x:H) have been prepared by rf reactive magnetron sputtering from a silicon target in a mixture gas of Ar, N2, and H2. The effects of the presence of hydrogen gas have been related to the refractive index, deposition rate, etch rate, and the Si-H and N-H bonding in the films. Hydrogen contents were measured by a quadrupole secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) using deuterium implanted samples as reference standards. The deuterium implanted samples were annealed at 900°C for various periods of time to study the diffusion behavior of deuterium and hydrogen in a Si-rich and a nearly stoichiometric silicon nitride film.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bangwu Liu ◽  
Sihua Zhong ◽  
Jinhu Liu ◽  
Yang Xia ◽  
Chaobo Li

The passivation process is of significant importance to produce high-efficiency black silicon solar cell due to its unique microstructure. The black silicon has been produced by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) process. And the Silicon nitride films were deposited by inline plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to be used as the passivation layer for black silicon solar cell. The microstructure and physical properties of silicon nitride films were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), spectroscopic ellipsometry, and the microwave photoconductance decay (μ-PCD) method. With optimizing the PECVD parameters, the conversion efficiency of black silicon solar cell can reach as high as 16.25%.


Author(s):  
Longqiu Li ◽  
Shufeng Wang ◽  
Andrey Ovcharenko ◽  
Wuyi Wang

Silicon nitride films were attracting extensive research interest in the past few decades as hard disk protective coating, especially the beta-silicon nitride (β-Si3N4) films and amorphous silicon nitride (SiNx) films, which have high hardness, chemical durability and low friction coefficient properties against wear, corrosion and reducing the friction resistance, respectively. Considerable efforts have been made in studying silicon nitride. However, it’s difficult to determine its nano-tribological properties experimentally since the results were affected by a lot of contact and environment conditions. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method is employed in this work. A rigid diamond sphere modeled as a spherical tip are sliding over a layered silicon nitride film substrate, respectively, to investigate the tribological properties of silicon nitride films. The effect of the relative sliding velocity and sliding direction, the normal force and the thickness of crystalline silicon nitride films on the friction coefficient of silicon nitride films were investigated.


2008 ◽  
Vol 1123 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. Saenger ◽  
M. Schädel ◽  
T. Hofmann ◽  
J. Hilfiker ◽  
J. Sun ◽  
...  

AbstractWe present an infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry investigation of SixNy films deposited on textured Si substrates employed for photovoltaic cells. A multiple-sample data analysis scheme is used in order to determine the SixNy dielectric function and thickness parameters regardless of the surface morphology of the substrate. We observe changes in the dielectric function of the silicon nitride film which suggest variations in the chemical composition of the films depending on the substrate morphology.


2002 ◽  
Vol 715 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Izumi ◽  
A. Kikkawa ◽  
H. Matsumura

AbstractIn this work silicon nitride films are formed as substrate temperatures 250°C by combination of catalytic-nitridation and catalytic-vapor deposition method in a catalytic chemical vapor deposition system. It is found that inserting nitridation layer about 2 nm-thick before growing the silicon nitride films, injection-type hysteresis of capacitance-voltage curve is drastically reduced from 1.4 V to 0.05 V for 40 nm-thick SiNx.


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