Hydrogen Dependent Surface Morphology
Study of Plasma Deposited SiNx:H Films for
two Gas Systems SiH4/NH3 and SiH4/N2
Siddheshwar Chopra1, R.P. Gupta2 and Souri Banerjee*
Abstract- Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition
was used to deposit hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNx:H)
thin films using two gas mixtures: SiH4/NH3 AND SiH4/N2.
NH3 and N2 gas flowrates were the only deposition
parameters varied. Surface morphology of all the samples
was observed with the help of Atomic force microscopy
(AFM). Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
was utilized to examine the chemical bonding and determine
the Total bonded hydrogen (TBH) content of the films.
Ammonia deposited films were found smoother than the
nitrogen deposited films. Surface roughness in both kinds of
films was found to be directly proportional to the hydrogen
content (TBH). Also X-Ray diffraction employed has shown
the presence of few silicon nitride grains ((200), (400) and
(221)) in all the samples.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1a and 1b show the FTIR spectra of nitride films
deposited using NH3 and N2, respectively. The bonded
hydrogen content (BH) in the films is dependent on the Si–
H and N–H bond concentrations [11]. The value of BH for
samples S1-S4 has been found to increase with increasing
NH3 gas flow rate as shown in Fig. 2a. Unlike the value of
BH for samples S1-S4, here it was found to be decreasing
with an increase in the N2 gas flow rate as depicted in Fig.2b.
Surface morphology for all the samples was studied with the
help of an AFM. The root mean roughness (Sq) of samples
S1-S8was found to be directly proportional to the BH content
of the films. Overall, the NH3 deposited films are smoother
 
S q 0.134 than the N2 deposited silicon nitride
I. BACKGROUND
The composition and properties of PECVD silicon
nitride films vary widely with deposition conditions
which have been studied well till now but only few
groups have reported the variation of surface
morphologies on deposition parameters [1-4]. The
negative role of roughness of the silicon nitride films in
thin film transistor applications have been demonstrated
by many groups [5-10]. Here, surface morphology of
plasma deposited silicon nitride thin films obtained using
SiH4/NH3 and SiH4/N2 gas systems has been thoroughly
investigated using Atomic force microscopy (AFM) in the
light of hydrogen content in the films. Phases of the films
have also been observed using X-Ray diffraction (XRD)
technique.
II. EXPERIMENTAL
The silicon nitride films were prepared by Plasma
enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) using
SiH4/NH3 and SiH4/N2 gas mixtures. The deposited
samples will be referred as samples Si(i=1-4) and samples
Si(i=5-8) respectively. Flow rates of ammonia and
nitrogen gases were the only deposition parameters which
were varied, at a fixed flow rate of SiH4 at nearly 11 sccm
for both kinds of the samples at a substrate temperature of
3000C.
978-1-4244-3544-9/10/$25.00 ©2010 IEEE
 
films S q 0.349 . It is important to point out that our
results show a dependence of RMS roughness of the films
on the BH content whereas the work by Li et al. [12] in
which silicon nitride films were deposited by rf magnetron
sputtering with variation in (N2/Ar) ratio concluded with no
correlation between surface roughness and the flow-rate
ratio. The phases of the samples have been studied using
XRD technique. Fig. 3 displays the XRD spectra of S2 and
S6. In both the spectra, broad hump from 150 - 350 indicates
a predominant amorphous nature covering a characteristic
peak of silicon nitride oriented in (200) direction around 270.
It is interesting to note the occurrence of silicon nitride
grains observed clearly through the sharp peak at 53o
representing (301) lattice plane diffraction peaks. The next
small hump centered at 55o can be expressed as the
convolution of silicon nitride (400) and (221) lattice plane
diffractions [13]. This shows the semi-crystalline nature of
all the samples.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by Central Electronics
Engineering Research Institute (CEERI), Pilani, Rajasthan.
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Standards, USA, 1998, Card No. 83-0701

0.40 0.5
Si-H
Si-N Si-H
Si-N

0.35 N-H R1 = 146 R2 = 600

0.4
Absorbance (a.u) ------->
Absorbance (a.u) ------->

0.30
R2 = 500
R1 = 109.5 0.3

0.25
R2 = 400
0.2
R1 = 73
0.20

R2 = 300
R1 = 36.5 0.1
0.15

3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000
-1
Wavenumber (cm ) ------->
-1 Wavenumber (cm ) ------>
a) b)

Fig.1. FTIR absorption spectra for silicon nitride films deposited using a) NH3/SiH4 and b) N2/SiH4 gas systems with variation in
NH3 and N2 flowrates, exhibiting N-H, Si-H and Si-N stretching bonds.
NH3 Flowrate (sccm) -------> N2 Flowrate (sccm) ------->
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 300 350 400 450 500 550 600
11 3.0
0.44
10 0.18

2.8
9 0.40
RMS Roughness, Sq (nm) ------->

RMS Roughness, Sq (nm) ------->

0.16
TBH ( x 10 cm ) ------->
TBH ( x 10 cm ) ------->

8 2.6
0.36
7
-3
-3

0.14
2.4
22

6 0.32
22

5 0.12
2.2 0.28
4

0.10 2.0 0.24

3

2
0.08 1.8 0.20
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 300 350 400 450 500 550 600
NH3 Flowrate (sccm) -------> N2 Flowrate (sccm) ------->
a) b)
Fig.2. Plot of RMS Roughness (Ƒ) and BH (Ŷ) contents of the silicon nitride films as a function of a) NH3 and b) N2 flow rates.
Relation between RMS Roughness and BH contents of the films is observed clearly.
600
600

500
500
Intensity (a.u.) ------->
Intensity (a.u.) ------->

----> a-Si3N4 (200)

400
---------------> (400) & (221)
----> a-Si3N4 (200)

400
---------------> (400) & (221)

300 300

200 200
(301)

(301)

100 100

0 0
20 40 60 80 20 40 60 80
2T -------> 2T ------->
a)
b)
Fig.3. X-ray diffraction pattern for samples a) S2 and b) S6 showing the presence of (301), (400) and (221) oriented silicon nitride
grains in (200) a-SiNx:H films.