Simulation of a triode plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition system

The behaviour of a triode plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition (PACVD) system was studied with a newly developed simulation program based upon a one-dimensional particle (cloud in cell) model. The simulations were performed with argon as process gas to focus on the behaviour of the system without having to deal with complicated plasma chemistry. The simulations show that it is possible to control the production (and transport) of reactive species and the ion bombardment independently using the freedom to choose the total pressure, the RF amplitude and the DC voltage. In combination with these simulations a number of experiments were done where TiN was deposited on molybdenum substrates. The surface topology of these coatings, as analysed with atomic force microscopy, changes with increasing pressure from `egg'-like to columnar