Thin film deposition by means of atmospheric pressure microplasma jet

An RF microplasma jet working at atmospheric pressure has been developed for thin film deposition application. It consists of a capillary coaxially inserted in the ceramic tube. The capillary is excited by an RF frequency of 13.56 MHz at rms voltages of around 200 - 250 V. The plasma is generated in a plasma forming gas (helium or argon) in the annular space between the capillary and the ceramic tube. By adjusting the flows, the flow pattern prevents the deposition inside the source and mixing of the reactive species with the ambient air in the discharge and deposition region, so that no traces of air are found even when the microplasma is operated in an air atmosphere. All these properties make our microplasma design of great interest for applications such as thin film growth or surface treatment. The discharge operates probably in a gamma-mode as indicated by high electron densities of around 8x10(20) m(-3) measured using optical emission spectroscopy. The gas temperature stays below 400 K and is close to room temperature in the deposition region in the case of argon plasma. Deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films and silicon oxide films has been tested using Ar/C2H2 and Ar/hexamethyldisiloxane/O-2 mixtures, respectively. In the latter case, good control of the film properties by adjusting the source parameters has been achieved with the possibility of depositing carbon free SiOx films even without the addition of oxygen. Preliminary results regarding permeation barrier properties of deposited films are also given.