Silicon carbonitride films produced by remote hydrogen microwave plasma CVD using a (dimethylamino)dimethylsilane precursor

Amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbonitride (a-Si:C:N:H) films were produced by remote microwave hydrogen plasma CVD (RP-CVD) using (dimethylamino)dimethylsilane as a single-source precursor. The reactivity of the precursor with atomic hydrogen was characterized using (dimethylamino)trimethylsilane as a model compound. The effects of the substrate temperature (T-S) on the kinetics of the RP-CVD process, and the chemical composition and structure of the resulting film, have been investigated. The temperature dependencies of the mass- and thickness-based film growth rates imply that, for a low substrate temperature range (T-S 30-100 degreesC), film growth is limited by desorption of film-forming precursors, whereas in a high substrate temperature range (T-S 100-400 degreesC) film growth is independent of the temperature, and the rate of RP-CVD is mass-transport limited. The increase of the substrate temperature from 30 degreesC to 400 degreesC causes the elimination of organic moieties from the film and the formation of a Si-N and Si-C network structure. The films produced at T-S = 300 degreesC were found to be dense materials exhibiting excellent morphological homogeneity, high hardness, and an extremely low friction coefficient. In view of these properties, a-Si:C:N:H films produced by RP-CVD seem to be promising coatings for tribological use.