2024 Volume 67 Issue 2 Pages 59-64
A new plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system using photo-excited plasma, photoemission-assisted PECVD (PA-PECVD), is explained. PA-PECVD gives certain voltage and current density during its plasma reactions, controlling plasma reactions precisely. The voltage is a thermodynamic factor to determine how a chemical reaction occurs. The current density is a kinetics factor to determine how fast the reaction occurs. Its Townsend discharge, photoemission-assisted Townsend discharge (PATD), gives current approximately 10000 times larger than conventional Townsend discharge. PATD can be used for precise deposition of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films without damage by accelerated ions and the films can be optimized for carbon electronics. Investigation of the characteristics of the DLC films precisely synthesized by PA-PECVD leads to elucidate its growth model and will contribute to the tailor-made synthesis of DLC suitable to every industrial purpose.
