A kinetic study of the chemical vapor deposition of silicon carbide from dichlorodimethylsilane precursors

Silicon carbide (SiC) films were prepared from dichlorodimethylsilane (DDS) precursors at temperatures ranging from 1173 to 1373 K by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD). A comprehensive model of the chemical vapor deposition of SiC from DDS was developed, which includes gas-to-surface mass transfer, surface sticking, and gasphase chemistry. This model successfully reproduced our experimental results as well as those previously reported in the literature. This model assumed that the gas-phase chemistry consists of two reaction paths to form SiC: (i) gas-phase decomposition of DDS to form a growth species, most plausibly initiated by the fission reaction of the Si-C bond in DDS, followed by sticking on the surface and (ii) polymerization between this growth species and DDS, followed by deposition on the surface. The relative importance of mass transfer relative to chemical reactions in the gas phase was also determined.