Silicon and Silicon dioxide thin films deposited by ICPCVD at low temperature and high rate for MEMS applications

This paper presents Low temperature (50°C) high deposition rate (1.3nm/sec) inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposited silicon and silicon oxide films with uniform thicknesses over large area. It is observed deposition rate of Si thin is influenced by the SiH ₄ flow rate and nitrous oxide flow rate for SiOx thin films. The stress in the silicon layer is nominal hence they can be used as the structural or sacrificial layers. Silicon oxide layers showed moderately high stress and they are well suited as sacrificial layers for MEMS application. All layers are deposited at 50 °C hence they are well suited for deposition on flexible polymers which are extensively used in metamaterial, MEMS and microfluidic applications.