Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2011
The inter-relationship between plasma processing, composition, and mechanical properties of PECVD-SiNx, thin films was investigated. Results showed that by varying the gas feeding ratio of NH3/SiH4N2, one can obtain PECVD-SiNx, films of different composition and streu levels. For high stress films, the deposition rate is low, values of index of refraction and Si/N ratio are small. On the other hand, film density of such films is high; values of Young's modulus and N-H/Si-H relative bond density are large. A model which correlates film stress to that contributed by (1) lattice distortion induced by Si-H and NH bondings, (2) ion bombardment, (3) thermal mismatch between PECVD-SiNx films and silicon substrate, and (4) intrinsic stress introduced during the formation of covalent Si-N bonding is proposed and examined in this work.