Characterizations of Boron Carbon Nitride and Boron Carbide Films Synthesized by PECVD

Abstract

AbstractThin films of boron carbon nitride (BCN) and boron carbide (BC) were synthesized by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using two different reactant chemistries: (i) N,N’,N” – trimethylborazine (TMB); (ii) dilute diborane (5% in Ar) and hydrocarbon as precursor materials. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, Nano-Indentor, Flexus stress instrument and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to study the deposited films. The BC films are much more stable than BCN films under high humidity (100%) environment. Both BCN and BC films are very stable under atmospheric conditions. A high compressive stress of -4.2 GPA was achieved by conventional PECVD, which show promising applications in high performance ultra large-scale integrated circuit (ULSI) devices.