A Novel Organosilicon Source for Low Temperature Plasma Deposition of Silicon Nitride-like Thin Films

This paper deals with the deposition of silicon nitride-like films at low temperatures using radio frequency inductively coupled plasmas fed with bis(dimethylamino)dimethylsilane (BDMADMS) and argon (At). The effect of input power and BDMADMS-to-Ar ratio on the chemical composition of the deposited films has been investigated by means of Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy (Fr-IRAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The results indicate that at high input power and low monomer-to-Ar ratio, low carbon and high nitrogen content films, stable and with a refractive index of 1.87, can be obtained. Under the same experimental conditions, high carbon content silicon carbonitride coatings have been deposited from hexamethyldisilazane and Ar fed discharges.