Initiated-chemical vapor deposition of organosilicon layers: Monomer adsorption, bulk growth, and process window definition

Organosilicon layers have been deposited from 1,3,5-trivinyl-1,3,5-trimethylcyclotrisiloxane (V3D3) by means of the initiated-chemical vapor deposition (i-CVD) technique in a deposition setup, ad hoc designed for the engineering of multilayer moisture permeation barriers. The application of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy shows that the polymerization proceeds through the scission of the vinyl bond and allows quantifying the degree of conversion of vinyl groups, which is found to be larger than 80% for all the deposited layers. In situ real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) allows following all the i-CVD growth stages, i.e., from the initial monomer adsorption to the layer bulk growth. Finally, the combination of SE and FTIR has allowed defining the process window for the deposition of stable and highly cross-linked poly(V3D3) layers by tuning a key process parameter, i.e. the surface monomer adsorption. (C) 2012 American Vacuum Society. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.4711762]