Technologies
PECVD dielectric deposition
Plasma-enhanced CVD delivers the dielectric films that hold specialty devices together — structural layers, passivation, optical claddings, hard masks — at temperatures the rest of the wafer can survive. Film properties are engineered, not given: stress, composition and uniformity respond to every process knob.
What it does
RF plasma dissociates precursor gases to deposit SiO₂, SiN, SiON and related films typically between 100 and 400 °C. The craft lies in hitting a property target — stress, index, wet-etch rate, breakdown — while holding uniformity and particle performance at production volume.
Evaluation dimensions that decide projects
- Stress control & stability
- Absolute stress, tunability range, and drift with chamber condition and film age — critical for MEMS structural stacks.
- Uniformity
- Thickness and property uniformity across the wafer and over topography, at your film thickness.
- Thermal budget
- Achievable film quality at the temperature your device stack allows — the packaging question in particular.
- Film quality metrics
- Wet-etch rate, hydrogen content, breakdown, pinholes — matched to what your device actually demands.
- Particles & productivity
- Clean-cycle strategy, chamber-conditioning overhead and sustained throughput at specification.
Questions worth asking early
Can one film recipe serve two devices?
Rarely well. Stress, index and etch-rate targets conflict; treat each film as its own specification and let the platform prove it can hold several set-points reliably.
What belongs in a film demo?
Deposition on your substrate type, measured stress and uniformity maps, property data at your thickness, and — where relevant — behaviour after your subsequent thermal steps.
Have a structure, film or thermal step to discuss?
Send a short description of your application — device type, material, wafer size and what a good result looks like. An engineer will reply with a concrete next step.