Fabrication of SiNx Thin Film of Micro Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor for Maskless Nanoscale Etching

Micromachines

Man Zhang¹  Wushu Xiang¹  Jie Liu¹  Yichuan Dai¹  Qiang Li¹  Li Wen¹  Hai Wang² 

[1] Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China;School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, China;

关键词: silicon nitride;    plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD);    multilayer thin films;    residual stress;    micro dielectric barrier discharge;    simulation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/mi7120232

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The prevention of glow-to-arc transition exhibited by micro dielectric barrier discharge (MDBD), as well as its long lifetime, has generated much excitement across a variety of applications. Silicon nitride (SiNx) is often used as a dielectric barrier layer in DBD due to its excellent chemical inertness and high electrical permittivity. However, during fabrication of the MDBD devices with multilayer films for maskless nano etching, the residual stress-induced deformation may bring cracks or wrinkles of the devices after depositing SiNx by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Considering that the residual stress of SiNx can be tailored from compressive stress to tensile stress under different PECVD deposition parameters, in order to minimize the stress-induced deformation and avoid cracks or wrinkles of the MDBD device, we experimentally measured stress in each thin film of a MDBD device, then used numerical simulation to analyze and obtain the minimum deformation of multilayer films when the intrinsic stress of SiNx is −200 MPa compressive stress. The stress of SiNx can be tailored to the desired value by tuning the deposition parameters of the SiNx film, such as the silane (SiH4)–ammonia (NH3) flow ratio, radio frequency (RF) power, chamber pressure, and deposition temperature. Finally, we used the optimum PECVD process parameters to successfully fabricate a MDBD device with good quality.

【 授权许可】

Unknown