Plasma chemical vapor deposition of hydrocarbon films: The influence of hydrocarbon source gas on the film properties

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Abstract
Hydrocarbon films were prepared by electron cyclotron resonanceplasma deposition from different hydrocarbon source gases at varying ion energies. The source gases used were the saturated hydrocarbons CH 4 , C 2 H 6 , C 3 H 8 , C 4 H 10 (n- and iso-) and the unsaturated hydrocarbons C 2 H 4 and C 2 H 2 as well as mixtures of these gases with hydrogen. Film deposition was analyzed in situ by real-time ellipsometry, and the resulting filmsex situ by ion-beam analysis. On the basis of the large range of deposition parameters investigated, the correlation between hydrocarbon source gas, deposition parameters, and filmproperties was determined. The filmproperties are found to be influenced over a wide range not only by the energy of the impinging ions, but also by the choice of source gas. This is in contrast to a widely accepted study where no dependence of the filmproperties on the source gas was observed, this being ascribed to a “lost-memory effect.” A strong correlation was found between the hydrogen content of the films and the filmproperties. This strong correlation is explained on the basis of the random-covalent-network model.