Inductively-coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide thin films for MEMS

In this study, the impact of various deposition parameters such as the reactive gas flow ratio, plasma power, substrate temperature and chamber back pressure of ICP-CVD deposited a-SiC:H thin films is investigated and the influence on important MEMS-related properties like residual stress, Young's modulus, hardness, mass density and refractive index is evaluated. Basically, tailoring of the as-deposited a-SiC:H characteristics is possible to a great extent with residual stress values ranging from −16 up to −808 MPa, Young's modulus values between 36 and 209 GPa or deposition of layers with hardness values ranging from 5.3 to 27.2 GPa is feasible. Especially the mechanical parameters are strongly linked to both the SiC bond density and the amount of incorporated hydrogen obtained from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses.