Chemical Vapor Deposition of Low Hydrogen Content Silicon Nitride Films Using Microwave-Excited Hydrogen Radicals

The chemical vapor deposition method using hydrogen radicals excited by microwave plasma has been applied to obtain silicon nitride (SiN) films of low hydrogen content. In this method, silane and monomethylamine were used as source gases. Various properties of deposited films such as the composition of SiN, the residual contents of carbon and oxygen, and the deposition rate were influenced by growth conditions. In the growth conditions, the distance between the center of the waveguide and the substrate was the most critical parameter because the distribution of the H radical strongly depended upon it in our experiment. For a suitable substrate position, carbon and oxygen contents could be reduced to a small value. On the other hand, residual hydrogen content was less than ∼1×1022 cm-3. This value was a quarter of that in the films grown by silane and ammonia gases under similar conditions.