Articles
  • Structural, physical and electrical properties of SiO2 thin films formed by atmospheric-pressure plasma technology
  • Kyoung-Bo Kima and Moojin Kimb,*

  • aDepartment of Materials Science & Engineering, Inha Technical College, Incheon 22212, Republic of Korea
    bDepartment of Electronic Engineering, Kangnam University, Yongin 16979, Republic of Korea

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) systems operate at atmospheric pressure and low temperatures, eliminating the need for vacuum systems such as vacuum chambers and pumps. In this paper, we studied that silicon dioxide thin films were formed at room temperature (25 oC) and 400 oC by APP processes on silicon wafers. A mixture of hexamethyldisilazane, oxygen, helium, and argon was supplied to the plasma apparatus to form the SiO2 layer. It was observed that a heat insulating layer having a thickness of about 22 nm at 25 oC and about 75 nm at 400 oC was formed. Although the surface was clean in samples treated at 400 oC, small grains were observed in samples processed at room temperature. However, no void or defect in all samples is observed inside the thin film from the surface. The physical property of the SiO2 thin film carried out by measuring refractive index and density. The experimental refractive index of silicon dioxide grown by applying heat can be fitted to the Sellmeier equation. Also, the film density of the sample at 400 oC using a XRR was observed to be 2.25 g/cm3, similar to that of the glass, but that of the sample treated at room temp. was very low at 1.68 g/cm3. We also investigated the voltage-dependent current change in the oxide material. The SiO2 layer coated at room temperature showed a breakdown electrical field of 2.5 MV/cm, while oxides deposited at 400 oC showed a characteristic of 9.9 MV/cm


Keywords: Silicon oxide, Atmospheric pressure plasma, Hexamethylidisilazane, Room temperature, 400 oC

This Article

  • 2022; 23(4): 535-540

    Published on Aug 31, 2022

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2022.23.4.535
  • Received on Jul 15, 2021
  • Revised on Mar 24, 2022
  • Accepted on Apr 2, 2022

Correspondence to

  • Moojin Kim
  • Department of Electronic Engineering, Kangnam University, Yongin 16979, Republic of Korea
    Tel : +82-31-280-3809 Fax: +82-31-281-3604

  • E-mail: moojinkim7@kangnam.ac.kr