High quality silicon-nitride thin films grown by helium plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Silicon nitride (SiN) films with very high dielectric strength of more than 8 MV/cm were successfully deposited on Si wafers using helium plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (He-PECVD) at very low deposition temperature. The quality of the SiN films was much better than that of the SiN films deposited by the conventional PECVD. Silicon oxynitride (SiON) films with index of refraction varying from 1.46 to 2.0 were also deposited on Corning-7059 glass substrate by controlling the gas flow rate using computer process controller.