Chemical vapor deposition of organosilicon and sacrificial polymer thin films

Abstract

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) produced films for a wide array of applications from a variety of organosilicon and organic precursors. The structure and properties of thin films were controlled by varying processing conditions such as the method and power of precursor activation, pressure, flow rates, and substrate temperature. Systematic variance of deposition conditions allows for the design of materials for a specific application, highlighting the versatility of CVD processes. Spectroscopic tools including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were utilized to characterize film structure and understand the relationship between the structure and properties of materials. Computational quantum mechanics is a power tool applied to explain observed phenomena such as unreferenced chemical shifts in the 29Si NMR of organosilicon thin films, and to examine the thermochemistry of a family of methyl- and methoxymethylsilanes enabling the prediction of initial reactions occurring in the CVD process.