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Influence of Gas Flow Ratio in PE‐CVD Process on Mechanical Properties of Silicon Nitride Film
Author(s) -
Oh HyunJin,
Isono Yoshitada,
Namazu Takahiro,
Saito Yoshihiro,
Yamaguchi Akira
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
ieej transactions on electrical and electronic engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.254
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1931-4981
pISSN - 1931-4973
DOI - 10.1002/tee.20268
Subject(s) - silicon nitride , materials science , chemical vapor deposition , silicon , poisson's ratio , auger electron spectroscopy , ultimate tensile strength , nanoindentation , analytical chemistry (journal) , composite material , indentation , nitrogen , modulus , elastic modulus , young's modulus , plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition , nanotechnology , metallurgy , chemistry , poisson distribution , statistics , physics , mathematics , organic chemistry , chromatography , nuclear physics
Abstract This paper investigates the influence of gas flow ratio in the preparation of submicron‐thick silicon nitride (SiN x ) films on their elastic properties. SiN x films with a thickness ranging from 0.14 to 0.69 µm were deposited by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE‐CVD) onto 10‐µm‐thick single‐crystal silicon (SCS) specimens by changing the gas flow ratio of monosilane (SiH 4 ) to ammonia (NH 3 ) to nitrogen (N 2 ). A uniaxial tensile tester operated under an atomic force microscope (AFM) characterized the Young's modulus of SiN x films and the fracture strength of SiN x /SCS laminated specimens. The Young's modulus of SiN x films ranged from 99.5 to 144.3 GPa, which increased with the gas flow ratio but was independent of the film thickness. Nano‐indentation tests were also carried out to examine the Poisson's ratio of SiN x films in addition to the tensile tests. The Poisson's ratio was found to be 0.19 to 0.27, on average. Auger spectroscopy revealed that an increase of the atomic content ratio of nitrogen (N) to silicon (Si) in SiN x films yielded higher elastic constants of the films. © 2008 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.