Initiated PECVD of Organosilicon Coatings: A New Strategy to Enhance Monomer Structure Retention

A new deposition method, initiated PECVD (iPECVD), is proposed for the formation of organosilicon polymers with enhanced monomer structure retention compared to conventional PECVD. The quasi‐selective fragmentation of an initiator is driven by a low power plasma discharge, as opposed to using a hot filament for initiator decomposition as in a standard, plasma‐free initiated CVD (iCVD). The weak peroxide bond (OO) in the initiator permits the formation of radical species at very low plasma power density (0.07 W · cm−2). Kinetic analysis of the deposition process indicates that the film formation rate follows the Arrhenius law, similarly to other iCVD process from organosilicon monomers. magnified image