Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2011
This paper describes Optical Emission Spectrocopy (OES) and Mass Spectrometry (MS) studies of the plasma region in the Remote Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) of amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) and silicon oxide thin films. In Remote PECVD, only the O2/He mixture is plasma excited, silane is introduced into the deposition chamber well below the plasma region. Deposition of films has been studied over a wide range of relative He and O2flows, between 100% He and 100% O2. The incorporation of SiH in the oxides derives from the same mechanism as the deposition of a-Si:H, i.e., a metastable He induced fragmentation of silane.