Industrial implementation of plasma deposition using the expanding thermal plasma technique

Two successful industrial implementations of the expanding thermal plasma setup, a novel plasma source, obtaining high deposition rate are discussed. The Ar/O2/hexamethyldisiloxane and Ar/O2/octamethyl-cyclosiloxane-fed expanding thermal plasma setup is used to deposit scratch resistant silicone films on polycarbonate with the purpose of replacing glass by polymers in the architectural and transportation industry. Antireflection and bulk passivation coatings for cryst. silicon solar cells based on silicon nitride films and deposited from Ar/N2/SiH4 and Ar/NH3/SiH4 mixt. are discussed next. It is shown that the versatile control of parameters in the ETP setup (i.e., arc current, gas flow rates and working pressure) enable specific tuning of the film properties (i.e., chem. compn., optical and mech. properties). [on SciFinder (R)]