Microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of diamond in silicon pores

In this work, the feasibility of growing boron-doped diamond coatings, approximately 0.3 mum thick, on thin silicon substrates that have 50-mum diameter pores etched 125 mum deep has been demonstrated using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) in combination with chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP). Using a microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) cyclic growth process consisting of carburization, bias-enhanced nucleation, diamond growth and boron-doped diamond growth, uniform diamond coatings throughout the pores have been obtained, The coatings were characterized by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy and the secondary electron emission coefficients were found to increase from 4 to 10 between 200 and 1000 V, in agreement with reported values for thicker polycrystalline-diamond films grown under similar conditions. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.