DEPOSITION RATE OF BORON-NITRIDE FILMS USING PLASMA-JET TECHNIQUE

A plasma jet apparatus was developed to obtain high-growth-rate deposition of boron nitride films. In this apparatus, the gas mixture of B2H6-NH3-H-2 was excited into a plasma state by dc arc discharge. As the resulting deposits, thick films of boron nitride containing cubic phase nanocrystallites were seen on silicon single-crystal wafers. The deposition rate reached 40 mum/min at a substrate temperature of 900 K. This was 2000-4000 times larger than the deposition rates obtained previously using the rf plasma chemical vapor deposition technique. With addition of Ar to gas mixture, the deposition rate decreased to < 20 mum/min. The volume fraction of cubic boron nitride in the deposits was dependent upon the substrate temperature under the conditions both with and without Ar.