Search

Hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films were prepared on inner surface of 100-μm-width microchannel by using a bipolar-type plasma based ion implantation and deposition. The microchannel was fabricated using a silicon plate, and two kinds of microchannels were prepared, namely, with a bottom layer (open at one end) and without a bottom layer (open at both ends). The distribution of thickness and hardness of films was evaluated by SEM and nanoindentation measurements, respectively, and the microstructures of films were evaluated by Raman spectroscopy. Furthermore, the behavior of ions and radicals was analyzed simultaneously by combining the calculation methods of Particle-In-Cell/Monte Carlo Collision and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo to investigate the coating mechanism for the microchannel. It was found that the film thickness decreased as the depth of the coating position increased in the microchannels where it is open at one end. The uniformity of the film thickness improved by increasing the negative pulse voltage because ions can arrive at the deeper part of the microchannel. In addition, the hardness increased as the depth of the coating position increased. This is because the radicals do not arrive at the deeper part of the microchannel, and the incident proportion of ions relative to that of radicals increases, resulting in a high hardness due to the amorphization of the film. The opening area of the microchannel where the aspect ratio is very small, radicals dominate the incident flux, whereas ions prevail over radicals above an aspect ratio of about 7.5. On the other hand, in the microchannels that are open at both ends, there were great improvements in uniformity of the film thickness, hardness, and the film structure. The a-C:H films were successfully deposited on the entire inner surface of a microchannel with an aspect ratio of 20. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amorphous carbon films (a-C:H) were prepared on a microtrench (4-μm pitch and 4-μm depth), and the uniformity of film thickness and microstructure of the films on the top, sidewall, and bottom surfaces of the microtrench were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The a-C:H films were prepared by bipolar-type plasma based ion implantation and deposition (bipolar PBII&D), and the negative pulse voltage, which is the main parameter dominating the film structure, was changed from -1.0 to -15 kV. Moreover, the behavior of ions and radicals was analyzed simultaneously by combining the calculation methods of Particle-In-Cell/Monte Carlo Collision (PIC-MCC) and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) to investigate the coating mechanism for the microtrench. The results reveal that the thickness uniformity of a-C:H films improves with decreasing negative pulse voltage due to the decreasing inertia of incoming ions from the trench mouth, although the film thickness on the sidewall tends to be much smaller than that on the top and bottom surfaces of the trench. The normalized flux and the film thickness show similar behavior, i.e., the normalized flux or thickness at the bottom surface increases at low negative pulse voltages and then saturates at a certain value, whereas at the sidewall it monotonically decreases with increasing negative voltage. The microstructure of a-C:H films on the sidewall surface is very different from that on the top and bottom surfaces. The film structure at a low negative pulse voltage shifts to more of a polymer-like carbon (PLC) structure due to the lower incident energy of ions. Although the radical flux on the sidewall increases slightly, the overall film structure is not significantly changed because this film formation at a low negative voltage is originally dominated by radicals. On the other hand, the flux of radicals is dominant on the sidewall in the case of high negative pulse voltage, resulting in a deviation from the Raman behavior of a-C:H films deposited by bipolar PBII&D. This tendency intensifies as the negative voltage becomes greater. Also, the energy of incident ions on the sidewall of the trench increases with increasing negative voltage, which causes a shift in the Raman data of the sidewall to the bottom right corner on the figure depicting the relationship of the FWHM(G) and the G-peak position, indicating increased graphitization of a-C:H film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]