EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Silicon nitride (SiNx) and hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNx:H) thin films enjoy widespread scientific interest across multiple application fields. Exceptional combination of optical, mechanical and electrical properties allows their utilization in several industries, from solar and semiconductor to coated glass production. Wide bandgap (~5.2 eV) of thin films allows its optoelectronic application while SiNx layers could act as passivation antireflective layers or host matrix for silicon nano-inclusions (Si-ni) for solar cell devices. In addition, high water-impermeability of SiNx makes it a potential candidate for barrier layers of organic light emission diodes (OLEDs).
This work presents an overview of the state-of-the-art process techniques and applications of SiNx and SiNx:H thin films. We focus on the trends and latest achievements of various deposition processes of the recent years. Historically different types of chemical vapour deposition (CVD), such as plasma enhanced (PE-CVD) or hot wire (HW-CVD) as well as electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) are the most common deposition methods, while physical vapour deposition (PVD), primarily sputtering is also widely used. Besides these fabrication methods, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an emerging technique due to its ability to control the deposition at atomic level and provide extremely thin SiNx layers. Application of these three deposition methods is compared while special attention is paid to the effect of fabrication method on the properties of SiNx thin films, in particular the optical, mechanical, and thermal properties.