Silicon Nitride Film Deposition by Photochemical Vapor Deposition Using an Argon Excimer Lamp

摘要

In this paper, we report the deposition of silicon nitride (SiN_x) films for the production of semiconductor devices and flat panel displays, by chemical vapor deposition with vacuum ultraviolet excimer lamps (VUV-CVD) using SiH_4 and NH_3 as raw materials. An Ar_2~* excimer lamp (λ = 126 nm, hv = 9.8 eV) with a high photon energy was used to directly excite and dissociate SiH_4 through a photochemical reaction. SiN_x films were successfully formed at a low temperature of 100℃ with the Ar_2~* excimer lamp. Although the Si-rich films were obtained using an Ar_2~* lamp, they showed a quality almost similar to that of films obtained by conventional plasma-CVD at 400℃.