Chemical Vapor Deposition of SiO2 from Ozone-Organosilane Mixtures near Atmospheric Pressure

ABSTRACTThe kinetics of deposition of SiO2 by the reaction of tetramethylsilane (TMS) with ozone (O3) has been studied over the temperature range 180 – 380° C and compared with available data for the same process using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). Both processes exhibit the same activation energy (17 kcal/mole) below 300 ° C which falls-off at higher temperatures due to transport limitations. Transition from first- to zero-order kinetics occurs with increasing concentrations of TMS and O3, which gives an overall O3/TMS consumption ratio of 10 at 258° C and5 at 325° C. TEOS is estimated to be 5 times more reactive than TMS above 300° C and over 10 times more reactive in the kinetically-limited regime below 300° C. Results suggest that O3-induced SiO2 deposition proceeds via surface reactions and is limited by heterogeneous decomposition of ozone.