Infrared absorption spectroscopy of SiO/sub x/ deposition plasmas

Summary form only given, as follows. Plasma deposition of SiO/sub x/ is widely used in semiconductor device technology as an interlayer insulator and is today an emerging technology in the packaging industry to generate new gas and aroma barrier materials. Recently it has been shown that Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a powerful diagnostic for the understanding of deposition plasmas. We applied this technique to SiO/sub x/ deposition processes which allowed us to obtain new aspects of the gas behaviour and the powder usually produced in these plasmas. For this purpose we used commercial FTIR equipment to investigate hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) plasmas in rf capacitively coupled reactor and for ex-situ analysis of the deposited layer on industrial plastic substrates such as low density polyethylene (LDPE). Our results show the influence of various plasma parameters (gas mix, pressure, power, excitation frequency, temperature...) on the gas phase behaviour and the powder created in the plasma. In addition the correlation between spectra obtained in the plasma and spectra from the deposited SiO/sub x/ films shall be discussed. These FTIR results are complemented by extensive mass spectrometry, light scattering on the powder and electrical measurements of the reactor.