Deposition of protective coatings in rf organosilicon discharges

The paper discusses the deposition of protective coatings ranging from organosilicon plasma polymers to SiO2-like films and hard diamond-like carbon/silicon oxide (DLC : SiOx) coatings in radio frequency capacitively coupled discharges using hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO). As a result of the optimization of the deposition conditions it was possible to obtain high performance protective coatings. In the HMDSO/O-2 mixture, it was shown that rather than the SiO2-like film a hard cross-linked SiOx C-y H-z polymer film can be used as a protective coating for polycarbonate. The optimum conditions for the deposition of an almost stress-free film were 17% of HMDSO and dc bias voltage of -240V. The film hardness and elastic modulus were 10GPa and 75GPa, respectively. The refractive index at 600 nm was 1.5 and the extinction coefficient decreased from 0.02 at 240 nm down to zero at 600 nm. The films deposited from HMDSO/CH4 and HMDSO/CH4/H-2 mixtures exhibited the attractive properties of DLC films with the partial elimination of some of their drawbacks, such as absorption in the visible and a high intrinsic stress. The optimum concentration of the HMDSO was approximately 21%. Under these conditions the concentration of SiOx in the films was approximately 9 at.%. The film hardness and elastic modulus were above 22 GPa and 120 GPa, respectively.