Deposition of SiOx films from hexamethyldisiloxane/oxygen radiofrequency glow discharges:: Process optimization by plasma diagnostics

Optical emission and Fourier transform infrared absorption diagnostics have been carried out in hexamethyldisiloxane/oxygen RF discharges for studying the effects of the feed composition and the power on the deposition of SiO2-like thin films. Ex situ FTIR absorption has been utilized to monitor organic moieties and silanol groups in the film. It is shown that carbon-free films can be obtained by highly diluting the monomer in oxygen, while medium-to-high power is necessary to abate silanol groups. These two conditions represent the optimization criterion to obtain excellent barrier films for food packaging applications.