SiN layers are typically deposited by low-pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) and plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD). The issue with these deposition techniques is that they require high temperature processing (>400ºC) in order to produce waveguides with low propagation losses. As a result, they are incompatible with multilayer platforms in which the integration of active devices is intended, because the fabrication of these devices requires processes that are sensitive to high temperatures such as metallisation and doping. To address this situation, we are proposing hot wire chemical vapour deposition (HWCVD) as a means to deposit SiN layers at temperatures below 400ºC. This technique has already been used in solar cell applications [1,2] to produce amorphous SiN layers with low hydrogen content and high mass density [3]. In this study, several deposition recipes were defined with a design of experiments methodology (DoE) in which different combinations of deposition parameters were investigated to understand how they affect the material structure of the SiN layers in order to optimise the quality and the losses of the deposited materials. The physical, chemical and optical properties of the obtained SiN layers were characterised using ellipsometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).  Also, waveguide structures were fabricated on the deposited materials to measure their propagation losses at 1310 and 1550nm using the cutback method. SiN layers with good uniformity, roughness as low as 0.61nm, H concentration as low as 10.4x10²¹ atoms/ cm³ and losses of 7.1dB/cm at 1310nm and 12.3dB/cm at 1550nm were obtained.

[1]  H. D. Goldbach, C. H. M. van der Werf, J. Löffler, A. Scarfo, A. M. C. Kylner, B. Stannowski, W. M. Arnoldbik, A. W. Weeber, H. Rieffe, W. J. Soppe, J. K. Rath, and R. E. I. Schropp,“Hot-wire chemical vapor deposition of silicon nitride for multicrystalline silicon solar cells,” in Conference Record of the Thirsy-first IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 1249–1252, IEEE, January 2005.

[2]  J. K. Holt, D. G. Goodwin, A. M. Gabor, F. Jiang, M. Stavola, and H. A. Atwater, “Hot-wire chemical vapor deposition of high hydrogen content silicon nitride for solar cell passivation and anti-reflection coating applications,” Thin Solid Films 430, pp. 37–40, April 2003.

[3]  V. Verlaan, R. Bakker, C. H. M. van der Werf, Z. S. Houweling, Y. Mai, J. K. Rath, and R. E. I. Schropp, “High-density silicon nitride deposited at low substrate temperature with high deposition rate using hot wire chemical vapour deposition,” Surface and Coating Technologies 201, pp. 9285–9288, September 2007.